National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib, during a visit to eastern provinces, called on the Taliban to stop “killing their own people and destroying their homeland for the benefit of foreigners” and to instead “fight against the enemies of Afghanistan alongside the ANDSF, the office of the NSC said on Tuesday.
At a meeting in Nangarhar with local security officials, Mohib said that Afghans are making peace with the Taliban, but they know that the real culprits of the war are others, who are martyring Afghan scholars and influential people and preventing development in Afghanistan, and the soil must be defended from them.
“Target the enemy in their bases and hideouts, in order to take away their ability to attack Afghan civilians and public facilities,” Mohib told Nangarhar local officials.
During his visit Mohib was accompanied by acting Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi, NDS acting chief Ahmad Zia Seraj and the Chief of Army Staff Yasen Zia.
After visiting Nangarhar, Mohib also visited Kunar province on Tuesday and met the families of victims of the recent Pakistani shelling in Sarkano district.
“The shelling will not go without a response, and Pakistan will not be allowed to build facilities on Afghan soil,” Mohib said.
On Saturday, senior security leaders discussed the shelling from across the Durand Line. They evaluated options to overcome this problem and to protect the population harmed by the Pakistan army’s shelling.
Lawmakers in Afghanistan’s parliament on Saturday summoned acting Minister of Interior Affairs Massoud Andarabi to report on the recent shelling of Kunar and Nuristan by Pakistani forces.
The parliament in a report said that over the past one year the Pakistani military forces have fired over 13,000 mortar rounds on Afghanistan’s eastern regions, particularly on Kunar and Nuristan provinces, which left tens of civilians dead and wounded.
Lawmakers condemned the shelling on Kunar and Nuristan and accused the Afghan government of neglecting the rights of the Afghan people.
Four days ago, at least eight civilians were killed and eleven others were wounded following artillery attacks by Pakistani forces on the Sarkano district in Kunar, as well as on Asadabad, Kunar’s capital, according to the local officials in the area.
Local officials in Kunar said that the firefight between Afghan and Pakistani forces broke out after Pakistani forces tried to establish new outposts inside Afghan territory.
