- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Pakistani authorities have blamed neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan and India for the growing number of extremist activities on the country’s soil.
By: Shubham Ghosh
US DEFENCE secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday (3) spoke to Pakistani Army chief Asim Munir and spoke over “areas of mutual interest and recent regional developments” amid a rise in terror attacks in the south Asian nation which is due to go to national elections next January.
The US defence department confirmed that Austin spoke to Munir over phone.
Speaking about the conversation, Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder said, “They discussed areas of mutual interest and recent regional developments.”
This is the second time that Austin and Munir have spoken on the phone.
The last time they spoke was in January this year, when the US defence secretary had called the Pakistani Army chief to congratulate him on taking charge as the army chief, Geo News reported.
The Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistani military, has not made a statement regarding the call yet, Dawn News reported.
Neither Washington nor Islamabad has revealed the details about the topics discussed.
The Dawn report recalled how the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West had recently identified the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as the greatest threat to regional stability.
The telephonic conversation between Austin and Munir, therefore, assumes significance.
According to Dawn, there has been “an uptick in terror activities in Pakistan, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, after the TTP ended its ceasefire with the Pakistan government in November last year”.
Dawn also quoted a report released in July by the think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies in Islamabad that said the first half of the current year witnessed a steady and alarming rise in terror and suicide attacks, claiming the lives of 389 people across the country.
Pakistani authorities have blamed Afghanistan for allowing militants to use its soil, with interim interior minister Sarfraz Bugti saying that 14 of 24 suicide bombings in the country this year were carried out by Afghan nationals.
Earlier on Monday (2), US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller offered to work with Pakistan on strategies that can better assist the country’s efforts to counter all forms of violent extremism. Some Pakistani media houses linked the phone call with the illegal immigration issue.
Pakistan has maintained that a majority of the illegal foreign nationals in Pakistan are Afghan nationals and also that the TTP cadre draws from that lot. “The announcement about the call came shortly after Pakistan set a deadline to expel all illegal foreign nationals in the country,” Aaj English, a TV channel, website said.
Bugti on Tuesday announced a November 1 deadline for thousands of illegal immigrants to leave the country or face deportation as the government intensified its crackdown against those involved in militancy and smuggling.
Sixty people were killed in a blast at a mosque in Mastung district of Pakistan’s Balochistan province on September 29 and Bugti accused India to be behind the incident.
(With PTI inputs)
