Islamabad: The Pakistan Army has alleged that the Afghan Taliban was facilitating terrorists to infiltrate the border to carry out acts of terror in the country.
Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, who is head of the army’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), made the allegation during an interaction with journalists Tuesday, a video of which was released Friday evening.
According to the spokesperson, the Afghan Taliban forces open fire at Pakistani border posts, “providing a cover for illegal infiltration of terrorists and even smugglers into Pakistan”.
“Borders are always mutually guarded. Both countries guard them. Now, on the other side is such a country whose posts first engage your posts through fire, and an exchange begins. And then they have them (terrorists) pass from the gaps in between,” Lt Gen Chaudhry said.
“There are extremely coordinated attacks. (They) attack the posts and have smugglers’ vehicles pass from below,” the military spokesman said.
The spokesperson also talked about a narrative based on a question about how terrorists could infiltrate through the Pakistan-Afghan border, smuggling carried out, and non-custom paid vehicles passing through it if the army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps troops were stationed along the border.
He said Pakistan had set up military posts at a distance of 15-25 km on the 2,500 km-long border, but added that it was not possible to completely seal the border, which even a country like the US was unable to do and stop illegal infiltration through its border with Mexico.
Lt Gen Chaudhry also refuted allegations by the Afghan Taliban that Pakistan had conducted overnight strikes in Afghanistan. He added that there are “no good and bad Taliban and Pakistan makes no distinction between terrorists”.
He also talked about the ongoing intelligence-based operations (IBOs) against the rebels, saying that 4,910 such operations had been carried out since November 4, amounting to 233 IBOs per day.
He added that 206 terrorists were killed in these operations.
He said that since January, at least 67,023 IBOs had been conducted across the country.
Balochistan had the highest number of such operations, with over 53,000, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) had over 12,800, and the rest of the country recorded about 850.
The military spokesperson said there had been 4,729 terrorist incidents since January, with 3,357 in KP, 1,346 in Balochistan and 26 in other parts of the country.
The spokesperson also highlighted the issue of the absence of civilian administration in the regions along the border, making it difficult for the armed forces to deal with infiltrations.
“There are 29 tribes here that are divided, whose population is here (Pakistan) and there (Afghanistan) as well. Right on the border. How will you control the movement there?” he asked.
He also talked about the “terror-crime nexus” and asked the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to take action against smuggled goods and illegal vehicles.
Talking about Pakistan-Afghanistan talks, which broke down earlier this month, he said Pakistan presented evidence about the presence of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) cells, and their funding and functioning from the Afghan soil.
He said that Pakistan was even open to a “third-party agreement” that would detail a verifiable mechanism to combat cross-border terrorism.
He cited a report by the United States’ Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) that said more than USD 7.2 billion worth of US military equipment had been left behind in the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The spokesperson claimed that the Afghan Taliban failed to convert into a state after 2021, and were supporting various non-state actors, including the TTP, Balochistan Liberation Army, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al Qaeda and Daesh.
He also defended the closure of the border for trade by saying that “blood and business cannot go together”, and stressed that trade had been halted as security was paramount.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have deteriorated amidst regular allegations by Pakistan regarding the failure of the Afghan regime to deny safe havens to TTP terrorists.
They had agreed on a ceasefire last month, but Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Friday that technically there was no truce as it was contingent on the Afghan Taliban stopping terrorist attacks in Pakistan, which they had failed to do.