Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday said it will take all necessary measures to mitigate the threat emanating from presence of Daesh in Afghanistan.

In his weekly news briefing in Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said, “These measures include effective border control and management.”  He pointed out that there ware “swathes of ungoverned territories” in Afghanistan, and Daesh and other terrorist outfits were gaining grounds there. The spokesman rejected insinuations of Indian external affairs minister against Pakistan and said, “Our sacrifices and losses in the war on terror are unmatched.” “By levelling baseless allegations, India is trying to hide its own hands in state-sponsored terrorism” in Indian-held Kashmir, he said. To a question, he said, “Pakistan wants to have sustained, meaningful and result-oriented dialogue with India that addresses all issues, particularly the [issue of] Jammu and Kashmir.” Zakaria said that peace in the region was not possible without resolving the Kashmir dispute. The spokesman said that visiting Acting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs and Acting Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Alice Wells had a meeting with Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua in Islamabad. “The two sides reviewed entire gamut of bilateral relations.” He said that the visit was taking place in the backdrop of US policy review on Afghanistan and the region, and “it provided an important opportunity to Pakistan to share its perspective on Afghanistan and broader issues relating to this region”.

Published in Daily Times, August 4^th 2017.