Pakistan offers conditional backing to Afghanistan

Pakistan has offered conditional support to help to put a full stop to the cross-border attacks in Kabul by the militants using the Pakistani territory.

"Islamabad would only guarantee no attacks from its soil if the US special forces erect a fence along Pakistan-Afghan borders and also repatriate all the Afghan migrants," reported Khaama Press, citing Pakistani official, as saying, to the local media. "The US policy of whipping Pakistan for every issue it faces should come to an end. We are not ready to be blamed for the failure of the US in Afghanistan anymore," the official said.

US Defence Secretary James Mattis has urged Pakistan to double its efforts to confront terrorists operating within the country. He emphasised the vital role that Pakistan can play in working with the United States and others to facilitate a peace process in Afghanistan and bring back stability and security to the region. The support was reportedly offered during a meeting with Mattis during his visit to Islamabad.

Earlier, Pakistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Khawaja Muhammad Asif claimed that majority of the attacks carried out in his country have been coordinated from Afghanistan. The two countries share strained bilateral relationships. Both Kabul and Islamabad steadily purport that the attacks in the two countries were being plotted and carried out by the safe havens located in the two countries.

-ANI