Afghan NSA blasts Pak for providing safe havens to Al-Qaeda, other terror groups

KABUL - In what appears to be a significant change in Afghanistan’s policy after continuous overtures to Pakistan, National Security Advisor Rangin Dadfar Spanta has called on Islamabad to take “serious measures” against militants using the country’s soil to launch attacks on the war-torn nation.

In an interview with a foreign news agency, Spanta said there was “tremendous evidence” that Pakistani authorities were allowing Al-Qaeda and other terror groups to operate from safe havens based inside the country, and that Kabul, on many occasions, had presented that evidence to Islamabad.

“My expectation is that Pakistan after nine years - because theoretically Pakistan is part of the anti-terror alliance - they have to begin to take some serious measures against terrorism,” The Dawn quoted Spanta, as saying.

“We have evidence that the terrorists from Pakistan are involved in daily attacks against our people and international ‘jihadi’ groups are active here. They have their base and sanctuaries behind our border and this is a serious problem,” he added.

Spanta said Pakistan has failed to tackle extremists on a whole, and has also been unsuccessful in carrying out action against any militant group be it Al-Qaeda, the Haqqani network or the less powerful Hekmatyar group and the Hizb-u-Tahrir.

“It is not a particular secret that the terrorists have sanctuaries in Pakistan, that they have training centres, that they have the possibility to come to Afghanistan, attack us and go back,” he said. (ANI)