Daily Times

The Foreign Office (FO) urged the Afghan government on Thursday to take ‘decisive action’ against the culprits of the Dera Ismail (DI) Khan terrorist attack, and hand them over to Pakistan.

In a weekly media talk, FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that her office acknowledges the Afghan government’s stance to conduct an inquiry into the December 12 terrorist attack. “Afghanistan must apprehend the offenders of this brutal attack and along with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leadership, turn them over to Pakistan,” Baloch stated, adding that the nation expects the government in Afghanistan to take solid and certifiable measures to prevent their country’s soil from being used by terrorist organisations.

Accepting the messages of condolences and compassion from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the FO spokesperson said that they maintained that the TTP-affiliated Tehreek-e-Jihad (TJP) was registered in the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee by the UNSC. “UNSC has called on states to collaborate with the Government of Pakistan and the concerned authorities,” Baloch informed. She added that the UNSC members have emphasised the necessity to hold the assailants, sponsors and facilitators of the DI Khan attack accountable.

Responding to a journalist’s question at the press talk, the FO spokesperson firmly rejected reports of Pakistan being in talks with the TTP and maintained that the country was neither communicating with any ‘third party’. On December 12, at least 23 soldiers were killed when militants rammed an explosives-laden truck into a security forces post in Khyber-Paktunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan district. The military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said that the terrorists rammed the vehicle after their attempts to gain entry were “effectively thwarted”.