India on Thursday accused Pakistan of border tensions with Afghanistan and termed it as unacceptable and rebuked Pakistan as the cross-border terrorism was conducted with impunity.
Weekly media brief, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Randhir Jaiswal, claimed that Pakistan is enraged at Afghanistan because it practices sovereignty over its own lands.
Jaiswal stated to the reporters, I repeat what I had mentioned in my previous briefing that Pakistan is enraged by Afghanistan having sovereignty over its own lands. Pakistan appears to believe that it can carry out cross border terrorism impunity. It is unacceptable to its neighbours. India is still keen and determined to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Afghanistan.
The comments of MEA are made in the context of deteriorating relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan as a result of the collapse of peace negotiations that took place this week in Turkey. There has been an increase in border tensions between the two countries, as each country accuses each other and skirmishes.
Dawn said that the hostilities commenced during the night of 11 October after the Taliban government in Kabul alleged that Pakistan had launched airstrikes in Afghanistan an allegation that Islamabad has not confirmed nor denied.
The tensions escalated on Wednesday when the Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif gave a stern warning to the Taliban government, which could see military attacks within the Afghan territory.
In an interview with the press, Asif remarked that in case another deadly strike is carried out on Pakistani soil by militants, it would not take long before the nation responded with a military action.
Asif quoted it in the article published by *Dawn: We will strike, we will strike. In case their land is used and they infringe our territory, then, should we require to venture deep into Afghanistan to avenge, which we most certainly would.
He said that Pakistan had discussed peace negotiations to provide peace the opportunity at the bequeath of friendly countries, yet the words of the Taliban were described by him as poisonous, representing an attitude of a sneaky and divided mentality.
The collapsed peace negotiation between Pakistan and Afghanistan was brokered by Turkey and Qatar whose purpose was to stem cross-border terrorism and militant confrontations. The talks that were conducted in Istanbul took four days but were fruitless in the sense that there was no deal and de-escalation roadmap.
According to the Information Minister of Pakistan, Attaullah Tarar, the talks did not end up in a workable solution. The negotiations were part of continuous international endeavors to calm the violence in the border following several fatal confrontations over the past week in this month.
Pakistan alleges that Taliban harbors militants that have conducted a series of attacks on Pakistani troops and civilians. The Taliban, nevertheless, refutes these allegations and it accuses Pakistan of acting against the Afghan sovereignty by hurling cross border attacks.
India has continuously been in support of independent and sovereign Afghanistan and has condemned cross-border terrorism in the region.
(With agency inputs )
