Pakistan prime minister accuses ‘Afghan citizens’ of assisting suicide bombers

Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has pointed to the involvement of “Afghan citizens” located across the border assisting the militants responsible for a series of suicide attacks in Pakistan.

This statement comes shortly after a fatal bombing occurred during a political gathering near the shared border between the two nations.

While refraining from directly implicating Afghanistan’s Taliban government, Sharif highlighted that Pakistani militants were operating from “sanctuaries” within the neighbouring country.

Pakistan has previously said that members of the Pakistan Taliban have been conducting activities from Afghanistan, a claim that is routinely denied by Kabul.

Sharif’s remarks late Tuesday (01) followed a security briefing and a visit to victims of Sunday’s explosion.

The blast took place at a gathering of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) political party workers in Khar, resulting in the death of 54 individuals and leaving numerous others wounded.

The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Pakistan chapter of the Islamic State group, which maintains a violent rivalry with the Taliban.

“The prime minister noted with concern the involvement of the Afghan citizens in the suicide blasts,” a statement from Sharif’s office said.

It noted there was “liberty of action available to the elements hostile to Pakistan in planning and executing such cowardly attacks on innocent civilians from the sanctuaries across the border”.

Since the Taliban surged back to power in Afghanistan two years ago, Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in militant attacks focused in its western border regions.

Taliban authorities have consistently pledged not to let Afghan territory be used by foreign militants to stage attacks — a key part of the accord that saw US-led forces leave after a 20-year occupation.

Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Wednesday (02) that the Khar attack was a “criminal act”.

“Such incidents should be prevented where they are happening and being coordinated,” he said.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is very serious about preventing its soil being used against anyone, and we won’t allow anyone to create a sanctuary here.”

A UN Security Council report in May said Afghanistan’s Taliban did not consider the Pakistan Taliban a domestic threat, “but rather as part of the emirate”, adding that the group had a “safe operating base” there.

In January, investigators blamed a mosque blast that killed more than 80 police officers on a splinter group of the Pakistan Taliban.

The Islamic State group named, but did not give the nationality of the suicide bomber it said carried out Sunday’s attack.

Pakistan police have not confirmed any details of the bomber.

But investigators said an Islamic State bombing that killed 64 people at a Shiite mosque in northwest Pakistan last year was carried out by an Afghan exile who had returned home to prepare for the attack.

Sharif’s office said the “interim Afghan government should undertake concrete measures towards denying its soil to be used for transnational terrorism”.

(AFP)