ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan on Thursday said its cooperation with Afghanistan was imperative for regional peace as the terrorists’ outfits in the neighboring war-torn Country were not only threat to Pakistan but for the entire region.
In his weekly media briefing in Islamabad, the Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s visit to Kabul accompanied by Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt General Naveed Mukhtar and Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua had been significant.
“They held meetings with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other senior civilian and military officials during which the defense cooperation and other important issues have been discussed,” he said.
The Spokesman said Pakistan had offered Afghanistan to conduct training in counter terrorism operations and border management.
Zakaria said Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif was currently undertaking his first bilateral visit to the United States at the invitation of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to review and discuss the bilateral relationship and regional security situation including Afghanistan and deteriorating Pakistan-India relations.
Talking about the Indian ceasefire violations at the Line of Control (LoC), Nafees Zakaria said India was a blatant violator of International law, and committing crimes in systemic manner. He said India wanted to engage Pakistan regionally to divert its attention from the diplomatic front on Kashmir issue where Pakistan was making progress.
“Indian occupation forces continue to violate ceasefire on LoC and deliberately target civilians”, he said.
The Foreign Office Spokesman said Indian move to keep LoC a burning issue was primarily to hide the crimes against Kashmiris its forces were committing in Indian Occupied Kashmir.
Replying to a question, he said India always leveled baseless allegations on Pakistan to divert world’s attention from the atrocities and state terrorism it was carrying out in occupied Kashmir.
“Indian irresponsible and hostile behavior is endangering the peace and security of the region and beyond. During 2017, India committed around 1000 ceasefire violations and its targeted attacks on Kashmiri civilians in AJ&K and in the vicinity of Working Boundary has resulted in the Shahadat of 45 civilians and injuries to 155 which included children and women”, he informed.
Terming India’s involvement in Balochistan as “Economic terrorism”, Spokesperson said India had been involved in sabotaging the peace of the province to create a setback for China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which was going to be the economic hub of Pakistan in future.
