Pakistan asks Afghanistan to secure shared borders from terrorists

Islamabad: Following the recent cross-border attacks on its security forces, Pakistan has asked the Afghanistan administration to secure the region along the Pak-Afghan border. Islamabad also demanded Kabul take action against those engaged in terrorism, IANS reported citing The News.

Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) statement read, "Pakistan requests the sovereign Government of Afghanistan to secure Pak- Afghan Border region and take stern actions against the individuals involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan in the interest of peace and progress of the two brotherly countries."

The FO stated that Pakistani forces are being targeted from across the border. FO's spokesperson Asim Iftikhar noted that terrorist attacks had surged significantly along the Pak-Afghan border in recent days. Terrorists are using Afghan soil to carry out operations inside Pakistan, he said.

He further said Islamabad has frequently requested Kabul to take notice of the attacks during the past few months. Pakistan's interest was peace and progress in both countries, which keeps brotherly relationships.

Later, Iftikar said that both the countries had been engaged through institutional channels for effective coordination and security along their long shared border for the last few months. "Unfortunately, elements of banned terrorist groups in the border region, including TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan), have continued to attack Pakistan's border security posts, resulting in the martyrdom of several Pakistani troops," he said.