Asif brushes off Taliban warning on TTP
Khawaja Asif said the Afghan Taliban’s support for the banned TTP remained in place and urged caution over reported signals from Kabul. He said there had been no practical change on the ground.
ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday that the Afghan Taliban government was continuing to back the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and cautioned against reading too much into what he described as mixed signals from Kabul on cross-border militancy.
Speaking in an interview with a private television channel, Asif referred to a report that Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada had warned the TTP to stop carrying out attacks inside Pakistan. He said the reported message should not be taken at face value.
Asif said the reported warning existed only at the media level and did not reflect any practical shift on the ground.
"It is only in the media, practically there has been no change in the situation on ground," he said and added that, in his view, there had been no real change in the situation despite the report.
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