'Afghanistan, India are victims of terror from same source', says Afghan envoy to India

NEW DELHI: 'Afghanistan and India are victims of terror from the same source...across the border', said Afghan envoy to India Shaida Mohammad Abdali, leaving no doubt that he was referring to Pakistan.
Abdali was referring to Sunday's horrific suicide bombing in Afghanistan's Jalalabad, which targeted, and killed, mostly Sikhs and Hindus.

Daish claimed the attack, but other credible news agencies said it was the Pakistani Taliban with the complicity of Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The Afghan envoy is pretty certain it was an attack orchestrated by elements from Pakistan - specifically the Pakistani Taliban. To be sure, the raison d'etre of some other Pakistani terror groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed, is terror attacks on India.

That's what Afghanistan's Abdali emphasized.

Attack has been claimed by Daish but fact is terrorism in Afghanistan is mostly coming from across border....Afghanistan and India are victims of terrorism from the same sources and that's why they have to stand together with rest of the world to fight terrorism in order for the two of us to be freed from menace of terrorism attacking both nations," he said.

Afghanistan is set for elections in October and among those killed in Jalalabad yesterday was Avtar Singh Khalsa, who had planned to stand in in the parliamentary elections. Of the 19 killed, 17 were Sikhs and Hindus.



"Extremely shocking... It is an attack on Afghan democracy, attack on Afghan values, freedom of religion, faith and attack on our diversity," said Abdali about the targeted killing.

Just yesterday, a top Donald Trump aide rapped Pakistan, again, for not bringing the Taliban within its borders to heel.

"Right now, it's the Taliban leaders…who aren't residing in Afghanistan, who are the obstacle to a negotiated political settlement," said Alice Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary for the State Department's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, to reporters in Kabul, reported AP.

Islamabad, she said, has taken no action.


"Pakistan has an important role to play…but we have not yet seen that sustained and decisive action on the part of Islamabad," said Trump aide Alice Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary for the State Department's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, to reporters in Kabul, reported AP.