United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the Taliban administration in Kabul to ensure an end to \u201call forms of terrorism activities\u201d that posed a threat to Pakistan and other neighbouring countries from Afghan soil.
\n\u201cThere is [\u2026] a clear ask from the international community, which is for Afghanistan to stop all forms of activity of terrorist organisations that from Afghanistan represent a threat to neighbouring countries, including Pakistan,\u201d he said while speaking at a UN press briefing in New York on Monday.
\nHe also said that \u201cwe are actively engaged in our discussions with the Taliban de facto authorities in relation to this\u201d.
\n\u201cWe consider that it is absolutely essential for the Taliban not to allow any form of terrorist activity that might have an impact in relation to Pakistan, as in relation to any other country of the region,\u201d he added.
\nThe UN chief\u2019s statement was in response to a question by a correspondent from Pakistan\u2019s state-run news agency APP about what he described as the Afghan rulers\u2019 failure to prevent cross-border attacks in Pakistan by the militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terrorist organisations.
\nIn this connection, he particularly mentioned an attack by terrorists on a police station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa\u2019s Lakki Marwat on Sunday that left four policemen dead and several others injured.
\nHours after the attack, militants detained at a facility run by Khyber Pakhtun\u00adkhwa police\u2019s Counter Terrorism Department in Bannu took over the compound, held interrogators hostage and demanded a safe passage first to Afghanistan and later to North Waziristan or South Waziristan.
\nThe TTP has claimed responsibility for the attack.
\nAs of today morning, reports said the situation in Bannu remained tense and the facility under the militants\u2019 control with no breakthrough in talks for the hostages\u2019 release.
\nThese episodes are just two incidents among several others that signify the bigger issue of a rise in terrorism and the deteriorating situation of peace in the country, particularly KP, following the end of a ceasefire between the government and TTP in late November.
\nAs Guterres addressed this rise in terrorism during Monday\u2019s briefing, he also outlined several other \u201cclear things that we believe the Taliban must deliver from the point of view of the interests of the international community and from the point of view of the interests of Afghanistan itself\u201d.
\nThe UN chief said the Afghan Taliban must deliver in relation to the inclusion in the power structures in Afghanistan.
\n\u201cWe have different ethnic groups, and it\u2019s important that all ethnic groups are represented.\u201d
\nMoreover, he continued, \u201cA second aspect in relation to human rights, in particular women and girls\u2019 rights, the right of women to work, the right of girls to attend school at all levels without discrimination.\u201d
\nFloods in Pakistan
\nGuterres was also asked to elaborate on how the UN intended to mobilise support for post-flood reconstruction in Pakistan at an international conference in Geneva on January 9.
\nHe said in response that he was \u201ctotally committed to do everything possible to mobilise the international community to support Pakistan\u201d.
\nHe recalled he had visited Pakistan immediately after the floods and was \u201cdramatically impressed by what I\u2019ve seen, three times the area of my own country flooded, terrible loss of crops and of animals and of houses and of life, for the population of Sindh and Balochistan and absolutely devastating situation\u201d.
\n\u201cI believe the international community has a strong responsibility to support Pakistan which has contributed in a very minimal way to climate change.
\n\u201cThere is a huge responsibility of the international community to support Pakistan in relation to the conference that we\u2019ll have [on] January 9 \u2026 to fully mobilise the resources that are needed,\u201d he stressed.
\nGuterres said he was also in contact with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
\n\u201cThere, hopefully, will be also, from these two institutions, meaningful action. And the Pakistani people deserve and need a strong expression of international solidarity,\u201d he emphasised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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