A spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Protection pushed again Wednesday on feedback made a day earlier by a Pakistan military spokesman, alleging that the March suicide bombing that killed 5 Chinese language engineers was deliberate in Afghanistan and perpetrated by an Afghan citizen.
Enayatullah Khawarazmi, the spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Protection stated, “Blaming Afghanistan for such incidents is a failed try to divert consideration from the reality of the matter and we strongly reject it.”
Main Normal Ahmed Sharif, the director-general of the Pakistani military’s Inter-Providers Public Relations (ISPR) – the military’s PR wing – gave a prolonged press convention on Could 7 through which he touched on a wide range of points, from Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and questions of election rigging to rumors that Islamabad has turned over air bases to the US and of Indian operations on Pakistani soil. Sharif additionally mentioned the March 26 assault that killed 5 Chinese language engineers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“This suicide bombing additionally connects to throughout the border [in Afghanistan]; the planning of this terrorism [act] was accomplished in Afghanistan. Terrorists and their facilitators have been additionally being managed from Afghanistan and the suicide bomber was additionally an Afghan [national],” he stated.
Sharif linked continued Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) assaults to the present powers-that-be in Afghanistan, alleging, “There may be concrete proof that TTP terrorists are nonetheless utilizing Afghan soil to launch assaults in Pakistan.”
Khawarazmi, the Taliban protection ministry spokesman, known as Pakistan’s claims “irresponsible and much from actuality.”
He famous Taliban engagement with China, saying that “[t]he Islamic Emirate has assured China on this matter, and the nation has additionally understood that Afghans usually are not concerned in such points.”
In September 2023, the Taliban welcomed Ambassador Zhao Sheng as Beijing’s new consultant in Kabul. 5 months later, in late January 2024, China turned the primary nation on the earth to welcome an envoy from the Taliban when Bilal Karimi offered his credentials alongside different new ambassadors in Beijing.
China’s ambassador in Kabul publicized a spate of conferences in late April and early Could with a wide range of Taliban officers, together with Performing Protection Minister of Afghanistan Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid on Could 4.
“The killing of Chinese language residents in an space of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that’s below tight safety cowl by the Pakistan Military exhibits the weak point of the Pakistani safety companies, ” Khawarazmi stated. He additionally countered Sharif’s declare with Kabul’s personal accusation that Pakistani territory is getting used to stage assaults towards Afghanistan.
The back-and-forth illuminates the tough and complicated ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The bilateral relationship has lengthy ebbed and flowed, with durations of pressure that predate the Taliban’s rise to energy following the withdrawal of Western forces in August 2021. However, Pakistani authorities had initially welcome the Taliban’s return to energy, viewing it as a chance – significantly when it got here to coping with the TTP. However within the years since 2021, the Afghan Taliban have both been unwilling or unable to fulfill Islamabad’s calls for relating to the TTP.
Within the meantime, since October 2023 Pakistan has pushed greater than 563,000 of what it calls unlawful immigrants – Afghans, a lot of whom have lived for many years in Pakistan – again throughout the border.