TTP using Afghan soil for attacks in Pakistan, claims Sanaullah

ATLANTA (Pajhwok): Pakistan Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has claimed that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is using Afghanistan’s soil for their attacks.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday, Sanaullah said it was a matter of concern that the TTP had taken responsibility for a suicide attack in Quetta.

The yesterday’s attack in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, left four people dead and 20 others injured. The TTP has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sanaullah also claimed that TTP leaders and 5000 to 6000 members of the group were hiding in Afghanistan and using the country’s soil against Pakistan.

“For Afghanistan, it should also be a matter of concern that the TTP is taking responsibility for recent attacks,” the minister said, adding that the caretaker government of Afghanistan had promised the international community that they would allow no one to stage attacks from Afghanistan in other countries. “But now this is happening”.

He said if Kabul desired positive interaction with the world, it should fulfill its promises.

Sanaullah is not the only Pakistani official to make such a claim. Previously Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made similar claims in the United Nations and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also said that international terrorists were hiding in Afghanistan.

The caretaker government of Afghanistan has not yet reacted to Sanaullah’s statements, but earlier it had strongly rejected Shehbaz’s and Bilawal’s claims.

The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly said that Afghanistan’s soil would not be allowed against any other country and there are no terrorist groups in the country.

ma