ISLAMABAD: A day after seven Pakistan Army personnel, including two officers, were martyred in a terrorist attack, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said militants are using Afghanistan soil to carry out terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. “Terrorism against us is mostly being conducted from Afghanistan,” the defence minister said while speaking to the media in Sialkot on Sunday.
Two officers and five soldiers of the Pakistan Army were martyred while repulsing an attack by terrorists on a post of security forces in the North Waziristan district on Saturday.
Pakistan has time and again accused the Afghan authorities of not taking action against terrorist outfits including the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operating on its soil and involved in cross-border attacks against security forces and civilians.
In the presser today, Asif said some facilitators of the terrorists have been traced, and Pakistan has raised the issue with the Afghanistan government, according to Radio Pakistan.
He also reiterated that “those people [foreign national] who do not have valid documents would not be allowed to live in Pakistan”.
Earlier today, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar accused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) social media team of being behind the accounts targeting Pakistan Army and the soldiers who were martyred in North Waziristan a day earlier, warning action against them.
Tarar, while speaking about the terror incident, said that Pakistan Army, the police and people have made sacrifices in the war against terrorism.
“I condemn the insulting social media campaign launched by a political party against the martyrs and their sacrifices,” said the information minister while speaking during a presser in Lahore.
Without naming the PTI, the defence minister said those behind the social media campaign against martyrs must be “linked with the terrorists”.
He said the Khyber Pakhtukhwa, where PTI is in power, is the most affected province by terrorism.
In a separate post on his X handle, the defence minister said the PTI’s alleged involvement in the smear campaign against the martyrs and forces is a reflection of “anti-state attitude”.
Referring to the previous PTI-led government policy to strike a ceasefire deal with the TTP, Asif said: “Who brought thousands of terrorists from Afghanistan to Pakistan [and] kept explaining the benefits of their return in the National Assembly.”
Moreover, he also questioned why terrorism in the country witnessed a surge following the removal of the PTI’s government.
“Identify the enemies. Loyalty to Pakistan is conditioned to power,” he added.
Responding to the, PTI senior leader Asad Qaiser Sunday censured federal ministers for accusing his party of running an “insulting campaign” against the martyrs of Pakistan Army and security forces personnel, terming it a “misleading propaganda” against PTI.
“Khawaja Asif and Ata Tarar’s misleading propaganda about the Pakistan Army’s martyrs is regrettable,” Qaiser said while speaking to journalists.
Following a surge in terrorist incidents, the caretaker government initiated a deportation campaign against illegal refugees mostly Afghans in Nov last year. –Agencies
