Afghanistan's Taliban government has once again flatly rejected Pakistan's charge that Afghanistan is behind the unrest gripping its neighbour. Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, said in a statement posted on social media on Friday evening that the accusations repeatedly levelled by Pakistani officials were wrong.
Mujahid said that when Pakistan's military circles and other security institutions fail to maintain law and order at home, they blame Afghanistan for the incidents in order to mislead their own people. It is not in Afghanistan's interest to create or support unrest in Pakistan, he said, adding that Afghanistan does not even have the resources to stir up or finance instability in other countries.
Insecurity in a neighbouring country, he stressed, directly harms Afghanistan and the wider region, and unrest in Pakistan damages Afghanistan economically, socially and in humanitarian terms. He urged Pakistani officials to focus on their own security responsibilities instead of blaming Afghanistan. He also alleged that Pakistan was instead spending on projects aimed at making Afghanistan insecure, which he described as an evasion of its core responsibilities and a destabilising waste of resources.
Pakistan's position is the opposite. Islamabad has long accused the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of using Afghan soil to launch attacks inside Pakistan, a charge the Taliban government denies. On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Dushanbe that Pakistan's only expectation of the Afghan Taliban was that Afghan territory not be used for terrorism. Margalla News' report on his remarks is here.
Mujahid's statement comes as attacks on police and security forces continue to be reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and as the cycle of accusations between the two neighbours keeps relations under strain.