Ghafoor presses for stability, security in Afghanistan

The Director-General (DG) of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major Asif Ghafoor has reiterated that peace was a distant dream in Afghanistan unless stability and security were ensured there.

"There was no terrorism in Pakistan before the Afghan war and our target is to take Pakistan to the pre-war peaceful era," The Express Tribune quoted Ghafoor as saying.

The DG was optimistic about the country's future in terms of security, despite the United States President Donald Trump recent tongue-lashings on Pakistan.

"Peace has returned to Pakistan and its future is prosperous. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could never have defeated Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan without Pakistan's support", he added.

Ghafoor also said Pakistan provided ISAF with all logistic and intelligence support to overcome terrorism in Afghanistan and has proposed a bilateral border control pact with Afghanistan, to eliminate terrorism in the region.

"Pakistan, with significantly less resources achieved what the security forces in Afghanistan couldn't with all of their resources. The issues at the border can be improved through better coordination."

The DG indicated that Pakistan had successfully defeated terrorism through Operation Zarb-e-Azb, which was a joint military offensive conducted by the Pakistan armed forces against various militant groups such as the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Haqqani Network to name a few.

"It was decided that the terrorists will not be allowed to flee to Afghanistan. [On the other hand] India is still active in [perpetrating terrorism] inside Pakistan." We have a perpetual security threat from the East, Ghafoor added.

The US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster underscored on Thursday that Islamabad's "positive" contribution is imperative for the stability and security in Afghanistan.

The statement comes after US President Donald Trump made a scathing remark against Pakistan on January 3 and accused it of lying and cheating while receiving billions in aid.

The US on Tuesday made its stand clear that the aid to Pakistan has only been suspended not cut-off, as it wanted the country to take an aggressive approach in eliminating terrorism.