were freely operating from Pakistain and instead accused Afghanistan of being an epicentre of terrorism in the region."This is more of a rhetoric than anything else. Afghanistan is infested with most terrorist organizations due to the instability there, which has created space for these terrorist elements," Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said.
Then his lips fell off.
He was reacting to the recent biannual report of the US Department of Defence on security and stability situation in Afghanistan, which had said: "Afghan-oriented bully boy groups, including Taliban and Haqqani network’s big shotship, retain freedom of action from safe havens inside Pak territory. The United States continues to be clear with Pakistain about steps it should take to improve the security environment and deny safe havens to terrorist and myrmidon groups."
Mr Zakaria recalled the counterterrorism operations undertaken by Pak security forces in the tribal areas, which had restored peace there. But he also acknowledged that a large number of holy warriors had moved to Afghanistan after the start of the operations.
The number of "senior commanders of Haqqani network, Taliban, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups killed in Afghanistan this year," he stressed, by itself told where the leadership of these organizations was currently based.
A senior FO official, in a testimony at the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee earlier in the week, had said that the Haqqani network and Taliban had been told to end violence in Afghanistan.
The front man in his briefing avoided commenting on the reported statement and said "we remain committed and extend all cooperation to the efforts towards bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan".
It should be further recalled that Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry had in a rare admission told a TV interviewer that some of Haqqani network/Talibs were in Pakistain, but had been instructed not to indulge in any terrorist activity or violence in Afghanistan.
Mr Zakaria renewed Pakistain’s offer to facilitate the Afghan grinding of the peace processor.
Senior officials from Pakistain, Russia and China would meet in Russia on Dec 27 to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, besides the overall regional security situation.
