Pakistan ready to thwart any Indian attack: FO

Islamabad: Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi has said Afghan transit trade is not taking place and it will remain closed till the evaluation of the security situation.

Responding to a question during his weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Friday, he said there had been continuous attacks on these trading points from the Afghan side, killing innocent Pakistanis. He said the lives of Pakistanis are more important than any commodity trade.

The Spokesperson said the Afghan soil should not be used for fomenting and sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan.

Answering a question, he said there was certainly optimism in the air when the Taliban had taken over Afghanistan a few years back but the use of Afghan soil by the TTP and other armed groups to carry out attacks on Pakistan has changed the environment.

The Spokesperson said the message from Pakistan to the Afghan interim authorities is to stop these attacks, control and apprehend these criminals and extremist terrorists of the TTP and other armed groups. He said this is not an outlandish demand. He said Pakistan is not asking for the moon, it is just conveying to them to uphold their own commitments under Doha-I.

Replying to a question regarding any Indian threat to forcefully annex Azad Kashmir, the Spokesperson said Pakistan has robust defence preparedness to thwart any such attack.

To a question about the Sharm el-Sheikh accord, the Spokesperson said it is time to translate that into a sustainable peace process that would lead to the creation of the state of Palestine, with al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital.