Kabul denies Khwaja Asif’s money request claim

KABUL (Pajhwok): The interim government has rejected Pakistan’s defense minister’s claim that it had requested monetary assistance from Islamabad to relocate members of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

According to reports, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif had alleged that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan had requested $36 million from Islamabad to relocate the TTP affiliates from areas near the Durand Line to other remote areas of Afghanistan.

Asif claimed that during his visit to Afghanistan in 2022, Maulvi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid had requested 10 billion Pakistani rupees from Pakistan to relocate the TTP to western Afghanistan.

However, reacting to Asif’s remarks, Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, said in an audio clip: “We reject this claim. The Islamic Emirate has made no such request to Pakistan. It is regrettable that high-level Pakistani officials are making such claims.”

This comes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes on the Barmal district of Paktika on January 24; killing 52 people and injuring 40 others, mostly women and children.

In what appeared to a retaliatory attack, Afghan border forces clashed with Pakistani forces, with each side claiming inflicting casualties on the other.

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