NEW YORK: Denying US allegations about the presence of terrorist safe havens in Pakistan, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi on Saturday said such enclaves existed in areas of Afghanistan that were not under government control.
“There are no such safe havens (in Pakistan),” she said. “The only havens that exist for the insurgents and for Daesh [Islamic State] and other terrorists are within the 40 percent of Afghan territory which is outside the control of the Afghan government.”
Lodhi said apart from the conflict between the Afghan government and the Taliban-led insurgency, a new threat has emerged in Afghanistan: the presence of a conglomerate of terrorists from various parts of the world, which have all now adopted the umbrella of Daesh.
“These terrorists are now located in the 40pc of Afghan territory which, according to a recent Pentagon report, is either out of Kabul’s control or is contested. It appears that Daesh’s ‘core’, under pressure in Iraq and Syria, may be relocating to these ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan,” she said.
Observing that securing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and preventing cross-border terrorism is essential for both the countries, the envoy said this could be achieved only through constant vigilance, effective management and real-time communication.
Published in Daily Times, December 24th 2017.
