The Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Pakistan had evidence of calls related to the incident of kidnapping of Jaffar Express tracked to Afghanistan, but reaffirmed that it was India that was trying to “destabilize their neighboring countries.”
The kidnapping occurred on Tuesday afternoon when the train, which was traveling from Quetta to Peshawar and transported 440 passengers, was ambushed by the terrorists of the Baluchistan Liberation Army (Bla). They opened fire on the train and kept passengers as hostages, which led the security forces to start an operation that lasted two days.
On Wednesday night, the general director of Public Relations between Services (ISPR), Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, confirmed that the operation had been completed, with 33 terrorists present at the site of the neutralized attack. The ISPR chief also confirmed that 21 passengers and four members of the border body staff lost their lives in kidnapping, but the hostages were not damaged during the final rescue phase.
During a weekly pressing session today, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Shafqat Ali Khan, was questioned if Pakistan had a change in India’s position to Afghanistan for the participation of terrorist attacks against Pakistan.
In response, he said: “There is no change in our policy. And again, the facts have not changed. India is involved in sponsoring terrorism against Pakistan. What I was referring to was, in this particular incident, we have evidence that the calls date back to Afghanistan. This is what I said. “
Khan added that Pakistan had been a victim of terrorism that was planned, orchestrated and sponsored by forces that operated outside the country’s borders.
“In our region, unfortunately, we have many forces against peace that do not want to see Pakistan reap the dividends of their unprecedented and sincere efforts in terrorism and the construction of a peaceful region,” he said.
The spokesman added that the terrorist attack against Jaffar Express was also “orchestrated and directed by leaders of terrorist rings operating from abroad.”
“Our security forces successfully eliminated the 33 terrorists, including suicidal terrorists, while rescuing hostages,” said the spokesman.
“The terrorists were in direct communications with Afghanistan -based planners throughout the incident,” he said.
The relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been tensioned due to the frequent border and Islamabad skirmishes repeatedly demanding that Kabul takes measures against the prohibited Pakistan of Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) for using an Afghan floor to launch attacks in Pakistan. Kabul denies the accusations.
“Pakistan has repeatedly asked the interim Afghan government to deny the use of its soil for terrorist groups such as Bla for their attacks against Pakistan,” he added.
The spokesman urged Afghanistan to hold the authors, organizers and financial of this “rebuilding act of terrorism and cooperate with the government” to take all those who are concerned about this attack, including the real sponsors of terrorism, to justice.
“We know how India has been trying to destabilize its neighboring countries,” he said, adding that India has been directing a world murder campaign.
Khan said that Pakistan’s basic approach to Afghanistan focused on the development of friendly and cooperative relations, which remained the key objective.
“We have long -standing relations with Afghanistan, and there are layers of complementarities between the two countries such as language, history, cultural affinity and religion, but terrorism remains the central obstacle, which prevents relations from developing even more,” he said.
He said that the relations between the two countries were dynamic and that the State continued to adjust it, and added that the FO will inform about the details in the next few days.
“With respect to dialogue with Afghanistan, we have no high -level interaction, but the embassies of both countries are working and diplomatic channels are active,” he said.
He said that terrorist elements such as TTP and other terrorist organizations enjoyed sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
“This is still an obstacle, a serious problem in the way of promoting deeper friendly relationships between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said.
“We have been pressing the Afghan authorities to address and manage this problem, and we will continue to press them to take the necessary actions in this regard,” he added.
During his presser yesterday, Lieutenant Gen Chaudhry of DG ISPR had also doubled on the use of Afghan soil in the attack, saying: “Intelligence reports have unequivocally confirmed that the attack was orchestrated and directed by terrorist leaders of the ring operating in Afghanistan, who were in direct communication with terrorists throughout the incident. Pakistan expects the Afghan interim government to maintain its responsibilities and deny the use of its soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan. “
Pakistan has recently witnessed an increase in terrorist activities, particularly in Khyber Paktunkhwa and Baluchistan. February saw a marginal increase in terrorist attacks, but a strong increase in civil victims, according to a report published by the group of experts based in Islamabad, Institute of Conflict Studies and Security of Pakistan (PETs).
According to PICSS, the country witnessed 79 terrorist attacks last month, which resulted in the death of 55 civilians and 47 security personnel, while 45 civilians and 81 security personnel were injured. Meanwhile, security forces intensified anti -terrorist operations, eliminating 156 terrorists, injuring 20 e arresting 66, he said.
