THE Afghan Deputy Minister for Interior Muhammad Nabi Omari has called upon both the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Pakistan government to settle their decades old conflict through talks. Although the Afghan Taliban government has been urging Pakistan behind the scenes to negotiate with the TTP for some time, this was the first time that a senior Afghan official said so publically and on record.

The Afghan minister added that because of this conflict, both Pakistan and the world community pointed fingers of blame at Afghanistan for helping and harbouring the TTP. The fact of the matter is that Pakistan has been correctly blaming the Taliban regime in Kabul for supporting the TTP. The number of attacks by TTP have increased manifold since the advent of Taliban regime in Kabul. Relations between Islamabad and Kabul touched a new low when Pakistan carried out air strikes against TTP bases in Khost and Paktika inside Afghanistan.

An important point that the Afghan minister seemed to have missed is that a sovereign country cannot be put in the same bracket with a militant/terrorist organisation. Pakistan has made it amply clear that it would not in any way negotiate with terrorists.

The Afghan government should rather concentrate on strictly complying with the United Nations resolution that called on the Afghan government not to allow terrorists to use its territory against any other country. This wil be a massive help.

Akbar Jan Marwat
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2024