IEA rejects Pakistan’s claims linking Islamabad blast to Afghanistan

KABUL (Pajhwok): Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defence, responding to recent remarks by Pakistan’s defence minister linking Friday’s explosion in Islamabad to Afghanistan, has said that such statements and attribution of the attack to Afghanistan have no logic or factual basis.

Friday’s explosion at a mosque in Islamabad left at least 31 people dead and 169 others injured.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) had strongly condemned the attack, stating: “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers such attacks—which violate the sanctity of religious rites and mosques and target worshippers and civilians—to be contrary to Islamic and human values, and condemns them in the strongest terms.”

Following the attack, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif claimed that the perpetrator involved in the incident had been present in Afghanistan.

In response, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defence described Khawaja Asif’s claim as baseless. In a statement, the ministry said: “In response to the claims made by Pakistani officials, it must be said with regret that after the incident at a mosque in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad—despite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs having condemned the attack—the Pakistani defence minister, as in the past, immediately and irresponsibly attributed the incident to Afghanistan.”

The ministry stressed that Pakistani officials have previously, in connection with incidents in Balochistan and other events, accused Afghanistan without proper investigation or verification.

The statement reiterated that such remarks and the attribution of blame to Afghanistan have no logic or basis, adding that hasty statements cannot conceal security failures or resolve underlying problems.

It asked: “If they were truly able to identify the perpetrators immediately after the incident, why were they unable to neutralise them and prevent the attack beforehand?”

The Ministry of Defence added that the Afghan government remains committed to Islamic values and does not, under any circumstances, consider the killing or harming of innocent people for political purposes to be permissible, nor does it support the perpetrators of such illegal acts.

The statement concluded by saying: “Pakistan’s security officials should, instead of evading responsibility for security failures and misleading public opinion, fulfil their duties properly, review their policies, and—rather than alienating their own people and neighbouring countries—adopt a spirit of positive engagement and cooperation.”

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