Pakistan PM, military ask US to root out terror in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top leadership on Thursday called on the US to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil as it rejected President Donald Trump’s call for India to take on a larger role in Afghanistan, saying New Delhi’ s policies are “inimical to peace in the region”.

A five-hour meeting of the National Security Committee, attended by the three service chief sand chaired by Prime Minister Shahid-Khaqan Abbasi, rejected Trump’s remarks that Pakistan had been under mining the US’s “war against terror” despite receiving billions in aid.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the civilian and military leadership countered the US criticism by reminding it of Pakistan’s role in the protracted conflict and asking that Washington work with Islamabad with a focus on core issues such as the elimination of terrorist safe havens inside Afghanistan, better border management, the repatriation of Afghan-refugees and a re-invigoration of the Afghan peace process for a political settlement.

The leadership also roundly rejected Trump’ s suggestion that India should do more in Afghanistan, with the committee saying that New Delhi “cannot be a net security provider in the South Asia region when it has conflictual relationships with all its neighbours and is pursuing a policy of de sta bi li sing Pakistan from the east and the west”.

The committee also condemned what it described as “state inflicted repression on the people” of Jammu and Kashmir and reiterated Pakistan’ s diplomatic, political and moral support for their“struggle for self-determination ”.