Pakistan to participate in conference over Afghanistan in Moscow

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will participate in a conference to be held over Afghanistan in Moscow, the Foreign Office confirmed.

However, Pakistan’s role and the extent of its participation are issues that have not been finalized. Whether the Afghan Taliban will participate in the conference or not remains unclear.

Spokesperson for the Foreign Office said that Pakistan had opened its borders with Afghanistan in a gesture of goodwill and stressed that Afghanistan should cooperate over issues related to border management.

He said that Pakistan would continue efforts to maintain peace in Afghanistan.

The Foreign Office rejected a human rights report by the US State department, adding that it ignores atrocities being committed in occupied Kashmir.

The Pak-Afghan border was opened at the Prime Minister's (PM) behest on Tuesday after 32 days. Thousands of individuals and cargo vehicles crossed the border through Torkham and Chaman.

Pakistan had sealed its border with Afghanistan for an 'indefinite period' owing to security concerns following the deadly suicide bombing at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sindh last month, in which over 80 people lost their lives and over 250 were injured. The attack on the shrine in Sehwan city of Sindh was part of a deadly wave of terror attacks in the country, and the fifth blast in less than a week targeting innocent people.

Pakistani authorities have repeatedly voiced concerns over terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan, from where majority of the attacks during February were believed to be coordinated. Last month, Pakistani diplomatic officials summoned the Afghan deputy head of mission to the Foreign Office to convey their concerns over continuing attacks by terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul-Ahrar from its sanctuaries inside Afghanistan.