Afghanistan’s turn to set its house in order: DG ISPR

ISLAMABAD: The Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, on Thursday said that Pakistan has restored peace on its soil and now Afghanistan will also have to do so.

In an interview with a private TV channel, the DG ISPR said, "Fighting the war against terrorism was a difficult phase;however, we restored peace on our side and now Afghanistan will have to do so."

He said the Taliban had influence in seven tribal agencies in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), but the Pakistani nation proved that they were determined [to eliminate terrorism].

The Pakistan Army general said that all the operations Pakistan undertook against the terrorists were different in nature from each other. Giving the example of Swat offensive, he said, "It was different due to the population there."

The Pakistani military spokesman said that they had good coordination with the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), a Nato-led security mission in Afghanistan. Speaking of border management with Afghanistan, he said that they had sent documents to Afghanistan pertaining to the management of long porous border between the two countries. "If a mechanism is finalised, then several issues relating to the border will be resolved."

The DG ISPR said that fencing on 2,600-km-long border [with Afghanistan] has already begun and there would be significant improvement if the border is managed by the coming year. Ghafoor said, "Physically, the war has ended, however the present stage is difficult. In this phase, we are fighting an enemy which is not seen.

"We have to track down and eliminate that unseen enemy," he added. The DG ISPR stressed that both Pakistan and Afghanistan needed to take measures for the sake of durable peace. "For durable peace, some measures are needed to be taken by Pakistan and some by Afghanistan," the DG ISPR said.

Commenting on Indian ceasefire violations, he said that Indian forces committed the highest number of such violations in 2017, compared to the past years. The Pakistani military spokesman maintained that India has a role in destabilising Pakistan. "The case of arrested Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav is also before everyone how he attempted to cause instability here."