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Published 25 Aug, 2016 05:48pm

FO asks Afghanistan to refrain India from using its soil against Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office has asked Afghanistan to refrain India from using its soil against Pakistan, Radio Pakistan reported on Thursday.

“Such cooperation should not be to the detriment of Pakistan,” said Nafees Zakaria, the spokesman for the Foreign Office at the weekly news briefing in the federal capital.

The FO's statement on the India-Afghanistan nexus comes two days after a Reuters report said India was set to deliver more arms to Afghanistan to help it fight militants.

India has provided a little over $2 billion in economic assistance to Afghanistan in the last 15 years.

Last December, after years of dragging its feet, New Delhi announced the supply of four attack helicopters in India's first transfer of lethal equipment to the government in Kabul since the hardline Taliban movement was toppled.

At a corps commanders’ conference held at the General Headquarters on August 9, top military officers believed the terrorist threat was transforming because of a growing nexus between hostile actors in the neighbourhood and facilitators within the country.

‘Peaceful resolution of Kashmir dispute’

Zakaria said international community should play its role to ensure a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir dispute and ending Indian brutalities in the region.

“Over 80 Kashmiris have been martyred, seven thousand injured and 500 deprived of their eye-sight due to pellet gun fire by the occupying Indian forces,” he said, adding that Pakistan was continuously sensitising the international community about the plight of people living in Indian-held Kashmir.

“Pakistan would also continue its moral, diplomatic and political support for peaceful struggle for right to self-determination … Kashmir remains the top issue on the negotiating table for Pakistan,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said.

He said Pakistan wanted to resolve the issue in a peaceful manner and through “result-oriented and sustained dialogue, which is not fragile enough to break down after some incident”.

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