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‘3 things are clear’: India disses Pakistan, backs Afghanistan on border clashes
The deadly clashes between two former allies began last week after Pakistan launched air strikes against targets inside Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul
NEW DELHI: India on Thursday came out strongly in support of Afghanistan amid its clashes with Pakistan, saying Islamabad has a history of sponsoring terrorism and blaming neighbours for its internal failures.
Clashes on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border erupted last week during a visit to India by Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who made a push to address India’s security concerns by saying that the regime in Kabul wouldn’t allow Afghan soil to be used against foreign countries.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India is closely monitoring the situation arising from the Afghanistan-Pakistan clashes. He also made it clear that the situation had been caused by Islamabad’s actions.
“India remains fully committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Afghanistan,” Jaiswal told a weekly media briefing.
“Three things are clear – one, that Pakistan hosts terrorist organisations and sponsors terrorist activities,” he said.
“Two, it is an old practice of Pakistan to blame its neighbours for its own internal failures, and three, Pakistan is infuriated with Afghanistan exercising sovereignty over its own territories.”
Jaiswal also denounced the deaths of Afghan civilians in the clashes along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The developments came against the backdrop of India-Pakistan relations hitting their lowest point in more than a decade.
The deadly clashes between the two former allies began last week after Pakistan launched air strikes against targets inside Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul. One of the strikes reportedly targeted a Pakistani Taliban commander, though he issued an audio message saying he had survived.
Dozens were killed and more than 100 others were injured before the Afghan and Pakistani forces agreed on a 48-hour ceasefire on Wednesday.
Authorities in Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak region said fighting along the border killed 40 Afghan civilians before the ceasefire came into effect. The fighting along the Durand Line has been described as the worst violence since the Taliban took power in Kabul in August 2021.
Reports said six Pakistani soldiers were among the dead, while the Pakistan Army claimed it had killed 15 to 20 Taliban cadres.
Pakistan demanded that the Taliban regime should act against armed groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan that had stepped up attacks on Pakistan from safe havens in Afghanistan. Afghan forces attacked Pakistani soldiers, accusing them of violating Afghan territory.
The Taliban also accused Pakistan’s military of spreading misinformation, provoking border tensions, and sheltering Islamic State-linked groups, especially the Islamic State-Khorasan Province, to undermine Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
Jaiswal also told the media briefing that India is expected to soon upgrade its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan. After pulling out all its diplomats and shuttering all its missions in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, India re-established a diplomatic presence in Kabul in June 2022 by sending in what it described as a “technical mission”.
“The transition from this technical mission to an embassy will happen in the next few days,” Jaiswal said.
Muttaqi told reporters that the Taliban will soon send its diplomats to the Afghan embassy in New Delhi.
