Interim Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on Saturday confirmed that a demarche was issued to the Afghan charge d’affaires in the wake of the terrorist attack on two military posts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Chitral district martyring four security men.
Responding to a question in a press conference about whether the matter was taken up with the interim Afghan government, the foreign minister said: “Pakistan registered a strong protest over the incident, summoned the Afghan Cd’A in Islamabad yesterday and handed over a protest note (demarche) to him.”
FM Jilani said the Chitral incident was “very unfortunate” and said Pakistan was taking the recent rise in terrorism very seriously.
“It is the responsibility of the Afghan government that if attacks are occurring in Pakistan from their soil then it should stop them. So our expectation from the Afghan government is that it suppresses all such elements, whether it is the TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) or others.”
He said Pakistan was in continued engagement with Afghan authorities.
“It will be our demand from the Afghan government that it ensures that such incidents don’t occur again,” Jilani added.
Similarly, caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said it was the expectation of Pakistan and the world from the Afghan Taliban authorities that they would honour the Doha agreement and not allow Afghanistan’s soil to be used for schemes against other countries.
A day ago, FM Jilani had said the terrorist attack in Chitral was an “isolated incident” that was probably not sanctioned by the interim Afghan government.
