Mind your own Taliban, don't blame us: Afghan Taliban tells Pakistan

Kabul: Taliban rulers in Afghanistan have told Pakistan to find a solution to their own local security challenges and desist from “sowing the seeds of enmity” by blaming them for the recent suicide bombing in Peshawar.

Speaking at an event in Kabul, Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi asked authorities in Pakistan to look for the reasons behind terror attack in their country instead of blaming Afghanistan.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack in crowded Peshawar mosque. However, moments after the incident (on Monday, 30 January, 2023), Pakistani authorities blamed the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also called Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), for the suicide bomb attack and suggested the violence emanated from Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad accused the TTP and demanded the Afghan Taliban to take action against them.

Earlier, TTP had claimed responsibility for the attack, however a spokesperson for the group later distanced the TTP from the carnage, saying it was not its policy to attack mosques.

Designated a global terrorist group by the US, the TTP has long been carrying out deadly terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

The suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan killed 101 people, mostly police personnel, and injured several others.

“We advise them to conduct a thorough investigation into the Peshawar bombing,” Muttaqi said Wednesday.

“Our region is used to wars and bomb blasts. But we have not seen in the past 20 years a lone suicide bomber blowing up roofs of mosques and killing hundreds of people,” he added.

Provincial police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari Tuesday said that a suicide bomber had entered the mosque as a guest, using up to 12 kilograms of explosive material which was brought to the site in bits and pieces over time.

‘Cooperate instead of blaming’

Muttaqi emphasised that Afghanistan was not a center for terrorism, saying: “If anyone says that Afghanistan is the center for terrorism, they also say that terrorism has no border.”

“If terrorism had emanated from Afghanistan, it would have also impacted China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan or Iran. We have to cooperate with each other, instead of blaming each other,” he said.

“Both countries are brothers to each other and must work in a peaceful environment together,” Muttaqi said.

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan on 15 August, 2021, as the US and allied nations withdrew troops from the country.