ISLAMABAD: The For­eign Office on Friday said that the Pakistan government expected the Afghan Taliban authorities to add­ress its security concerns.

“It is not a question of just raising again. We have been raising this matter consistently and we will continue to do that. We expect our concerns to be addressed,” Foreign Office spokesman Asim Iftikhar said at the weekly media briefing.

He was responding to queries about the presence in Afghanistan of handlers of the attacks on Frontier Corps camps in Panjgur and Nushki.

The ISPR had a day earlier said: “Intelligence agencies have intercepted communications between terrorists and their handlers in Afgh­anistan and India.”

After the fall of the Ghani regime, it was generally believed that security threats emanating from Afghanistan would finish. An impression was also given in a section of media, a few days before the Panjgur/Nushki attacks, that the infrastructure of Baloch separatists based in Afgh­anistan had been wiped out by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Afghan Taliban have been soft pedaling the issue of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pak­­istan. Initially, they nud­ged Pakistani authorities to hold talks with the TTP militants on the promise that action would be taken if they did not move in that direction. No action was taken against the group after the failure of talks and resumption of its terrorist activities.

National Security Adviser Moeed, who last week visited Kabul, reportedly took up this matter with Taliban leaders, but could not secure any firm commitment from them on the issue.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2022