“There are no safe havens [for terrorists in Pakistan],” the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi said in her address at the United States on Friday, PTI reported. Insurgents are present in 40% of Afghanistan territory that Kabul does not have control of, Lodhi said while discussing the security situation in Afghanistan.
The envoy’s statement follows United States President Donald Trump’s statement about “terrorist groups” operating on Pakistani terrority.
Lodhi dismissed military force as an option to resolve the challenge of insurgency. “The promotion of a political settlement and the pursuit of a military solution are mutually incompatible,” she said. “You cannot kill and talk at the same time.” Securing stability on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and preventing cross-border insurgency is a top priority for both Kabul and Islamabad, she said.
On December 20, Pakistan had rejected the United States’ National Security Strategy and its alleged “unfounded accusations” against Islamabad’s efforts to fight terrorism, local daily The Express Tribune reported.
The Trump administration had on December 18 released its first National Security Strategy document. Trump, while releasing the 68-page statutorily mandated document, asked Pakistan to take “decisive action” against terrorist groups operating from its soil.
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