Afghan supreme leader warns fighters against attacks abroad

KABUL: The Afghan Taliban supreme leader has warned fighters against launching attacks outside the war-torn country, the defence minister of the Kabul government said.

Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid said in a speech to members of Afghanistan´s security forces, broadcast by state television on Saturday, that fighting outside Afghanistan is not religiously sanctioned “jihad” but rather war, which had been barred by Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, according to AFP.

“If anyone goes outside of Afghanistan for the goal of jihad, it won´t be called jihad,” Akhundzada said, according to Mujahid.

“If the emir prevents the mujahideen (fighters) from going to battle and they still do it, this is war, not jihad.”

The statement comes days after Pakistan urged the Afghan interim government to take action against terrorists operating on its soil to stop “transnational terrorism” following a deadly suicide attack in a tribal district claiming more than 60 lives.

The deadly blast took place last Sunday evening in Bajaur district’s Khar, a former tribal area bordering Afghanistan, at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) gathering, killing at least 64 people and injuring over 100.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed concerns over the “liberty of action available” to terrorists in Afghanistan, urging the Taliban-led interim government to take action to stop “transnational terrorism”.

The premier noted with concern the involvement of the Afghan citizens in the suicide blasts and the liberty of action available to the elements hostile to Pakistan in planning and executing such cowardly attacks on innocent civilians from the sanctuaries across the border.

“The interim Afghan government should undertake concrete measures towards denying its soil to be used for transnational terrorism”, the statement quoted the premier as saying. Since the Taliban surged back to power in Afghanistan two years ago, Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in militant attacks focused on its western border regions, claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Daesh and other terror outfits.