Diplomatic channels open with Afghanistan: Foreign Office

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s bilateral diplomatic channels with Afghanistan remain open, and embassies and consulates on both sides are functioning normally to conduct routine diplomatic engagements, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said during his weekly press briefing on Thursday.

Commenting on regional developments, the spokesperson strongly condemned the demolition of the Faiz-e-Elahi Mosque in India, describing it as part of a systematic and deliberate campaign by the RSS-BJP nexus to target and erase Muslim heritage across the country. He also recalled the destruction of the Babri Mosque in 1992 by extremist mobs.

He told the media that numerous other historic mosques now faced similar threats of desecration or demolition and called upon the United Nations and international community to take serious notice of this alarming rise in Islamophobia, hate speech and hate-motivated violence in India.

The spokesperson highlighted that India had made consistent efforts to silence the genuine leadership of the Kashmiri people and muzzle the media.

“The number of Kashmiri political prisoners in prison is ever-increasing, and a number of political activities have been outlawed by the authorities. The profiling and harassment of innocent Kashmiris, arbitrary detentions, and the so-called cordon-and-search operations have become a norm in the occupied territory.”

He said that such measures were designed to systematically transform the Kashmiri people into a disenfranchised community in their own homeland, in clear violation of international law and the principles of self-determination.

Discussing the Afghanistan issue, the spokesperson reiterated Pakistan’s demand for a verifiable and written assurance from Afghan Taliban regime that their terrorist outfits and their individual nationals would not be allowed to carry out terror activities inside Pakistan.

He said that despite no such assurance from the Afghan side, Pakistan wished to engage positively with Afghanistan in bilateral and multilateral frameworks, including the trilateral framework with China.

He said that the bilateral diplomatic channels with Afghanistan were open and the embassies and consulates were functioning to carry out routine diplomatic exchanges.

Coming to Iran, he said that Pakistan had firmly opposed the use of force and escalation against Iran and the imposition of sanctions in the recent past. However, regarding the ongoing protest demonstrations, he said that Pakistan never interfered in the internal affairs of other countries.