Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (DGISPR) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry has warned that India appears to be planning a false flag operation through sea routes, adding that Pakistan’s armed forces are fully alert and aware of such threats.
Speaking to journalists about Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, the military spokesman clarified that Pakistan has not allowed the US to use its territory for drone strikes inside Afghanistan, terming such claims by Kabul as baseless propaganda.
He revealed that Afghan soldiers have been found involved in terrorist operations against Pakistan, confirming that several cross-border attacks were foiled and several militants were neutralized in the past few months. He added that about 60 percent of the terrorists killed were Afghan citizens, some of whom were from Afghan security forces.
Lt Gen Sharif further revealed that militant groups and their facilitators are moving from border areas to residential areas, a move aimed at using civilians as human shields. He also said that militants operating in Balochistan have safe havens across the Afghan border.
Referring to the Doha agreement, the DG ISPR said that the Afghan Taliban have failed to fulfill their promises to form a representative government through a Loya Jirga. He said that the key to peace lies in inclusive governance in Afghanistan.
He revealed that Pakistani security forces have conducted more than 6,200 intelligence-based operations, in which 1,667 foreign terrorists, including 128 Afghan citizens, were killed.
Talking about internal threats, Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif highlighted that terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is directly linked to the narco-economy, explaining that poppy cultivation has been widely used to finance terrorism. The army, Frontier Corps and Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) have jointly destroyed poppy fields in the Tirah Valley.
He said that about 12,000 acres of land in KP was under poppy cultivation, which generated an income of Rs 18 to 32 lakh per acre, and even local politicians were allegedly involved. He said that the Afghan Taliban protect this trade as it benefits the Afghan drug network.
Rejecting the allegation of US drone operations from Pakistani soil, the DG ISPR said that ‘there is no agreement allowing the US to conduct drone strikes from Pakistan into Afghanistan’.
When KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi was asked a question, he said that I am a public servant and am not in a position to accuse anyone. He is the elected Chief Minister and that is all I can say.
