Afghanistan’s man at UN urges China to put pressure on Pakistan over terrorism
Mahmoud Saikal says members of East Turkestan Islamic Movement have received training in Pakistan
Afghanistan’s UN ambassador says Pakistan is providing a safe haven for terrorists, such as the Taliban, and has called on China to assert its influence and dissuade Islamabad from supporting militant groups in the region.
Mahmoud Saikal said neighbouring Pakistan’s support of terrorists was the root cause of unrest in Afghanistan.
“Most terrorist activities [in Afghanistan] have links to Pakistan,” he said.
We feel that China is working hard. But so far we see no sign of a paradigm shift on the part of Pakistan
“The question is not about the Taliban. The question is about the forces behind the Taliban. Who is providing the safe havens and logistic support to the Taliban?”
Pakistan has allegedly been closely associated with the Taliban since its birth in the mid-1990s. The Afghan government has accused Pakistan of financing the Islamist group, an allegation Pakistani authorities deny.
Former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan in May. Osama bin Laden, the founder and head of the Islamist group al-Qaeda, which was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, was killed in Pakistan in May 2011.
Saikal said the Pakistani military, by supplying arms to terrorist groups and allowing them to establish bases in its territory, had used the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other proxies to wage an undeclared war against its regional rival India. Afghanistan had thus been a victim to the complex and often hostile relationship between its two neighbours, he said.
