Afghans Living In Pakistan Managed To Join Army, Rose To Higher Ranks: Pak Defence Minister

Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif said Afghan nationals living in Pakistan had managed to join the army. He said that these Afghans have now been dismissed from their posts. Khawaja Asif while speaking to The New said he signed two or three files to expel Afghan citizens who were serving in the army.

He told the news outlet that some of the officers who were serving in the army rose to higher ranks. He said some of them rose to the rank of captain and lieutenant.

“This happened about two to three years ago after which they were disposed of,” Khawaja Asif said.

Khawaja Asif said there are terrorists living in Afghanistan and claimed that 3,000-4,000 terrorists were given shelter in Pakistan by Imran Khan, the former prime minister and founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

“We do not want to set any new rules with Afghanistan, but we should break clean with the past 30-40 years as we cannot afford it,” Asif said.

He said former army chief general Qamar Javed Bajwa, former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) head retired lieutenant general Faiz Hameed and PTI founder Imran Khan should be answerable to parliament for the rise of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the nation’s economic crisis.

Pakistan will begin a renewed push to deport Afghan migrants from the country next month, officials said Tuesday, as border tensions between the two countries escalate.

Repatriation

More than 500,000 Afghans fled Pakistan after Islamabad set a November deadline for undocumented migrants to leave or face arrest, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in January.

Pakistan defended the crackdown by pointing to security concerns and pressure on its struggling economy, but analysts said it was designed to pressure the Taliban government over militancy along its border.

“The military establishment informed us that the second phase of repatriating illegal Afghan immigrants will commence after Eid,” a senior government official in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“However, the specifics of this phase are yet to be disclosed.”

Tensions between the neighbouring countries have steadily escalated since the Taliban authorities’ surge to power.

Islamabad has accused Kabul’s Taliban government of harbouring militant fighters, allowing them to strike on Pakistani soil with impunity. Kabul has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Air Strikes

Pakistan’s foreign office said the military carried out air strikes inside the border areas in Khost and Paktika provinces in Afghanistan early Monday to target militants responsible for recent attacks on its territory.

But Taliban authorities said eight civilians, all women and children, were killed in the bombardment.

Afghanistan’s defence ministry said its border forces retaliated by targeting Pakistani military posts along the border with “heavy weapons”, with cross-border skirmishes reported by both sides.

Monday’s strikes came after seven Pakistani troops were killed in an attack by an armed group inside Pakistan’s territory on Saturday, for which President Asif Ali Zardari vowed retaliation.