WASHINGTON, July 26: Pakistan has forwarded a list of Afghanistan-based Pakistani Taliban groups to the United States, seeking its help in curbing cross-border attacks inside the Pakistani territory, official sources told Dawn.
On Tuesday night, Pakistani Ambassador Sherry Rehman shared a similar list with senior US lawmakers who had come to her residence for a security briefing.
The list includes names of various TTP groups, their leaders and the location of their bases. It also details various cross-border attacks on Pakistani military posts from bases inside Afghanistan.
Afghanistan claims that Pakistan has been shelling targets inside their territory and has asked Islamabad to immediately halt all such attacks as these were a violation of their territorial integrity.
In its first reaction to these cross-border activities, the US Department of Defence said that it’s already working with Pakistan and Afghanistan to help resolve this issue.
“We’re working closely with both countries, obviously, to try to limit violence along the Afghan-Pakistan border. We have obviously been in constant contact with the Afghan government to work on these issues. And we have put pressure on the enemy to operate along the border,” Pentagon spokesman George Little told a news briefing in Washington.
“On the Pakistani side of the border, we are settling back into a normal phase of cooperation with our Pakistani partners. And border coordination, we believe, is improving,” he added.
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