Islamabad - Director General of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor has said that the soil of Pakistan is not being used against Afghanistan rather the land of Afghanistan is being used against Pakistan.
In an interview with a private TV channel on Tuesday, he said terrorists in Afghanistan, who have also the support of RAW and other agencies of enemy countries, are involved in recent terror incidents in Pakistan. He stressed the need for better border mechanism with Afghanistan.
To a question, Asif Ghafoor said action against terrorists was being taken irrespective of any affiliation and without any discrimination. He said the operation against miscreants was not against any province, community or a particular group.
He said the name of the operation clarified that it was against those who were involved in terror activities and its purpose was to restore peace in the country.
The DG ISPR said operation Raddul Fasad is of the entire nation and institutions. He said that every citizen is the soldier of Raddul Fasad operation and action against terrorists would be taken across the board. He said that like other operations, the present operation would also succeed due to the cooperation of the people.
He said that all the institutions in the country were doing their work to eliminate terrorism. He said the institutions are also playing their role under the National Action Plan.
To a query, he said either it was PSL or any other event, the Pakistan Army if tasked would provide foolproof security and would always fulfil its responsibilities.
Russia on Tuesday expressed satisfaction on Pakistan’s efforts in fight against terrorism and said that Pakistan’s Operation Raddul Fasaad would play an important role in elimination of terrorism from the South Asian nation.
Russian Ambassador to Pakistan Alexey Yurevich Dedov met with the Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and condemned recent terrorist incidents in the country and expressed grief on behalf of his country.
Ambassador Dedov acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts in fight against terrorism and initiatives for economic growth, and also appreciated the launching of Operation Raddul Fasaad which he said would play an important role in elimination of terrorism from Pakistan.
General Bajwa thanked the ambassador for Russian concerns, acknowledgments and ongoing cooperation between the two countries and its armed forces.
He said that enhanced Pakistan-Russia military-to-military cooperation would have a positive impact on regional security.
The remarks made by the Russian envoy are significant since the two countries enjoy mutually close cooperative relations in different fields including defence and security and are trying to address together some key challenges including fight against terrorism and peace and stability in the region.
Both Islamabad and Moscow also consult each other on key issues of common interest including peace and security in the region especially developments in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan remains of greatest interest to Russia and Pakistan largely because of their being neighbouring countries and unabated militancy in the region.
Situation in Afghanistan has become of far more interest for the two countries after the US-led multinational forces fighting war against terrorism for more than 15 years now, failed in restoring complete peace and stability in the insurgency plagued Afghanistan.
Islamic State, which is struggling to stage its foothold in the neighbouring Afghanistan also remain key area of interest for Russia and Pakistan.
Russia and Pakistan follow an identical approach towards establishment of peace in Afghanistan by encouraging an intra-Afghan dialogue to resolve the long-standing conflict.
By doing so, both Moscow and Islamabad have been advocating meaningful engagement of Afghan Taliban in the peace process as a legitimate stakeholder to promote political solution to the problem.
Previously, Pakistan has cooperated with Afghan government in facilitating to bring Afghan Taliban to a negotiation table through a quadrilateral mechanism which includes participation of Afghanistan, Pakistan, United Sates and China.
Unfortunately, that initiative was sabotaged the day it was kicked off when Pakistan hosted the first round of talks in Murree.
The process could not be revived until now largely because of trust deficit it created in Pakistan towards Afghan government.