Pakistan calls Taliban 'illegitimate regime' as 'open war' breaks out
· Toronto Sun
OTTAWA — As Pakistan declares an “open war” against neighbouring Afghanistan, Pakistan’s information minister has branded the ruling Taliban an “illegitimate regime.”
In a statement to the Toronto Sun from Pakistan’s High Commission in Ottawa, that nation’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar accused Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled government of “actively sponsors cross-border terrorism, institutionalizing slavery, and orchestrating the systematic erasure” of both women and ethnic minorities.
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“The Afghan Taliban regime is based on a system of repression,” Tarar said, adding Taliban oppression and what he described as a perversion of Islamic teachings “have nothing to do with Islam.”
Afghanistan sponsors cross-border terror, Pakistan claims
Clashes between the two nations turned into a series of cross-border military operations late this week, a dramatic boiling-over of tensions that have been brewing for several months — with hostilities pausing in October after a Qatari-brokered peace deal.
Associated Press reported Pakistani air strikes along the two nations’ 2,600 km border earlier this week, sparking a counterattack by Afghanistan late Thursday.
Explosions rang out Friday after renewed Pakistani air strikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces, targeting military installations.
Pakistan accused Afghanistan of aiding insurgents who in turn stage attacks against them.
Tarar’s address in Islamabad on Friday detailed purported connections between the Taliban and terrorist groups who stage attacks against Pakistan, accusing Afghanistan of providing “s afe havens, training and facilitation to terrorists” who they say commit terrorist attacks against Pakistani civilians, security personnel, mosques and court facilities.
Afghan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said their nation’s attacks against Pakistan were meant as “a message that our hands can reach their throats and that we will respond to every evil act of Pakistan.”
Mujahid also accused Pakistan of never seeking to “resolve problems through dialogue.”
Taliban returned to power five years ago
Taliban forces managed to take back control of Afghanistan’s government in Aug. 2021, shortly after the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops.
The capital city of Kabul fell to the Taliban after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
The Taliban previously ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until forced out by coalition troops in 2001.
Tarar maintained in a government statement that the Taliban seized power by force “without any legitimate process, and operates without the backing of its people.”
— With files from Associated Press