US tells Pak to ‘ expel and arrest’ Taliban leaders
OPEN CHALLENGE Islamabad’s envoy says no terror safe havens in his country
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration on Monday called upon Pakistan to “expel and arrest” Taliban leaders based on its soil and prevent the terror group from operating from its territory.
“We call on Pakistan to immediately arrest or expel the Taliban’s leaders and prevent the group from using Pakistani territory to support its operations,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at her daily briefing.
“In Afghanistan, where terrorists attacked a hotel in Kabul, such attacks on civilians only strengthen our resolve to support our Afghan partners,” she said, referring to an attack by the Taliban on Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel on Saturday night that left at least 22 people dead.
The US government confirmed multiple American nationals were killed in the attack.
Shortly after the White House implied a connection, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Relations—a leading Washington think tank — claimed his country had already evicted terrorists and their facilities, throwing an“open challenge” to anyone who could point to safe havens.
Chaudhry said his country’s military had“cleaned out” all terrorists, their“hideouts and sanctuaries and their IED (improvised explosive devices) factories” from Pakistan in operations since 2014.
“When somebody turns around and tells us that there are safe havens existing there, we say to them ‘please show us where’,” he said. “It’s been 10 months or so... we have been saying ‘please show us’... we will ourselves like to eliminate (the terrorists) if someone is hiding in any cave sin Pakistan.”
Pakistan is facing mounting pressure from the US to take action against terror groups operating from its soil and dismantle their safe havens. President Donald Trump and senior officials in his administration have repeatedly called upon Islamabad to take action against terrorists — a notable display of toughness that was absent in previous administrations.