Photo: Collected
Pakistan will no longer put up with cross-border terrorism and expects its neighbors to address the issue together, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday (20 March).
Sharif's remarks come four days after at least seven Pakistani soldiers were killed on the border with Afghanistan in a terrorist attack on a security post in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's North Waziristan District.
"If the territory of the neighboring country is used for terrorism, it is unacceptable," Sharif said at a cabinet meeting.
Pakistan's prime minister called on its neighboring states and their leaders to join forces in wiping out terrorism from the region.
"We want to live in a peaceful environment with our neighboring states and we want to have brotherly relations with them and trade," he added.
On Monday, Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesperson for the Taliban-controlled (under UN sanctions for extremism) Afghan government, said Pakistani warplanes had bombed the Paktika and Khost provinces bordering Pakistan overnight, in what appears to be a retaliatory move that followed the killing of seven Pakistani soldiers in the Saturday bomb-and-gun assault.
Later on Monday, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry confirmed that Pakistan's military was conducting an anti-terrorist operation in the border regions inside Afghanistan and has called on "certain elements" of the Afghan leadership to reassess the policy of "patronizing" terrorist elements.
Messenger/Mumu
