Taliban 'safe havens' located inside Afghanistan not outside: Maleeha Lodhi

NEW YORK: Pakistan hosts over two million Afghan refugees and expects gratitude, not hostility, from the government of the neighbouring country, Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Dr Maleeha Lodhi told the 15-member UN Security Council on Wednesday.

Dr Lodhi remarked that Taliban “safe havens” are inside Afghanistan not outside, given that large areas of that country are now under the Taliban’s control. 

She reasoned that the resilience of the insurgency in Afghanistan cannot be explained away by convenient references to external "safe havens" or “support centres”.

Pakistan, she asserted, is committed to not allow its territory to be used for terrorism against other countries. Pakistan's successive military operations are eliminating all terrorist and militant groups from its tribal territory bordering Afghanistan.

She told the council that Pakistan is “implementing border controls, including the fencing and monitoring of vulnerable sections of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.”

Both the countries, she stated, have suffered at the hands of terrorism and should cooperate with one another in order to eliminate terrorism from the region.

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She said that apart from Afghanistan itself, there is no country other than Pakistan, which has suffered more from the wars and violence that have engulfed Afghanistan for over 35 years. 

“There is no other country, which will gain more from peace in Afghanistan,” she added

She further added that a political strategy is needed since it was impossible to reach a political solution with only an increase in troops and military involvement.