Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa is expected to visit Kabul this week, Afghanistan's Tolo News reported on Wednesd...
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa is expected to visit Kabul this week, Afghanistan's Tolo News reported on Wednesday.
Tolo News reported that Gen Bajwa is to meet senior Afghan officials to discuss key issues, including getting Taliban to come to the table for peace talks.
Sources in Islamabad confirmed the development, saying that Gen Bajwa would briefly visit Kabul before heading to Moscow.
Afghanistan does not want a mediator in its dialogue with Pakistan and has also informed India that it does not want hostility with Pakistan, the sources added.
The Afghan news channel quoted Afghan Ministry of Defence Spokesman Dawlat Waziri as saying that the Kabul would reiterate its call to Pakistan to take action against 'terrorist hideouts and safe havens inside Pakistani territory'.
"We will ask Pakistan to act honestly, otherwise these trips will not have results," Waziri cautioned.
The meeting comes on the back of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, where both Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi spoke about terrorism in the region.
PM Abbasi in his speech warned that Pakistan refused to be a "scapegoat" for Afghanistan's bloodshed or to fight wars for others.
"Having suffered and sacrificed so much due to our role in the global counterterrorism campaign, it is especially galling for Pakistan to be blamed for the military or political stalemate in Afghanistan," Abbasi told the assembly.
"What Pakistan is not prepared to do is to fight the Afghan war on Pakistan's soil. Nor can we endorse any failed strategy that will prolong and intensify the suffering of the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan and other regional countries," he asserted.
Ghani in his address to the assembly, however, urged Pakistan to hold a state-to-state dialogue with Afghanistan "on how we can work together earnestly to eliminate terrorism and contain extremism".
Sources in Islamabad claimed that a meeting between Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif and United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson scheduled for later this week had been postponed at Pakistan's request.
The meeting is now expected in the second week of October.
Source: Dawn
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