Information Minister Attaullah Tarar addresses a press conference in Islamabad on Friday. — SCREENGRAB
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar is addressing a press conference on the recent clashes with what he said was the “illegitimate” Afghan Taliban regime.
Providing details regarding ‘Operation Ghazab Lil Haq’ during a press conference, Tarar said Afghanistan carried out unprovoked attacks against Pakistan, which were responded to in a very effective manner. “Not only were the attackers neutralised, they also fled, leaving behind their weapons and dead bodies of their comrades,” he added.
He said that the nexus between the terrorists and the Afghan Taliban regime is as clear as daylight, adding that they have long maintained that there is a link between suicide and terrorist attacks carried out in Pakistan and the use of Afghan soil for such activities.
Accusing the Afghan Taliban regime of training and facilitating terrorists, Tarar said that these militants kill innocent civilians, security personnel, officers and jawans of the armed forces. He also recalled the recent attacks in the federal capital, where an imambargah and a district court were targeted.
“Afghan soil is not being used; but, the Afghan Taliban regime is fully aligned with these terrorists and is completely backing these terrorists,” he said.
The minister described the Afghan Taliban as an illegitimate regime, ruling through repression and targeting women, minorities, and children while cracking down on basic human rights. He further warned that the regime has legalised slavery and violence, in violation of all human rights norms and international resolutions.
“It is an illegitimate regime and it has come into power by force without any legitimate process and it is a regime which is based on perversion of religion, it uses religion for its own authoritarian purposes in order to further its own vested interests and motives,” Tarar said.
Pakistani forces targeted key military installations of the Afghan Taliban regime in Kabul, Kandahar, and Paktia through effective airstrikes, early on Friday. The military spokesperson said the ongoing ‘Operation Ghazab Lil Haq’ against the Afghan Taliban was producing the desired results and continued successfully.
He said Pakistan had “effectively repulsed” Afghan Taliban insurgents at 53 locations along the border, inflicting heavy losses while exercising restraint to avoid civilian harm.
Addressing a press conference shortly after the military spokesperson’s address, the information minister launched a broadside at the Afghan Taliban regime and slammed it for its action within and beyond Afghanistan.
—————
More to follow.
