United Nations: Launching a scathing attack on Pakistan, Afghanistan has told United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that what Islamabad needs is the “political will to act against terrorists” and not “nuclear deals or F-16s”.
Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Mahmoud Saikal, in a statement to UNSC, further alleged that certain elements within the state structure of Pakistan are helping most of the terrorist groups active in the region.
He further said that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was “tracked” and killed in Pakistan’s Balochistan in an American drone strike and the incident “exposed” that Mansour had a Pakistani passport in a fake name that he had used to fly numerous times from Pakistani airports.
“Despite this, the charade of plausible deniability, duplicity, and blame of Afghan weaknesses continues, which must come to an end if we are to succeed in counter-terrorism,” he said.
Mr. Saikal accused “elements within the state structure of Pakistan” of facilitating most of the terrorist groups active in the region and warned that a country using “good and bad terrorists” against each other is “playing with fire.” He further pointed out that in the past 15 years, numerous leading figures of terrorism, including bin Laden and Taliban leaders Mullah Omar and Mansour have lived and died in Pakistan.
“The fact that notorious terrorist leaders were found and killed in their safe havens there is a clear proof that the country has violated the sovereignty of other nations,”” he said adding that this constituted a flagrant violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions on the Sanctions Regime against the Taliban.
“We believe that there is an urgent need for proper implementation of the existing counter-terrorism resolutions of the U.N. Security Council,” he said.
Mr. Saikal quoted President Ashraf Ghani’s address to joint sitting of the National Assembly where the Afghan leader had called on Pakistan to respect the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) agreements and take action against terrorists who have their bases and leaders in the neighbouring country.
“We believe that there is a need for political will and honest police action — rather than nuclear deals or F-16s — to fulfil the task,” of taking action against the terrorists.
(With PTI inputs)
