Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Pakistan at odds with BRICS on militants

Pakistan says it does not have terror groups operating freely in its borders, putting it at odds with a statement from the five emerging-market BRICS powers.
The minister's response on Tuesday follows a statement on Monday by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that also called for patrons of the Pakistan-based militant groups to be held to account.

"These organisations, they have some of their remnants in Pakistan, which we're cleaning," Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan told the Geo TV channel, without specifying which groups he was referring to.
"But Pakistan, we reject this thing categorically, no terrorist organisation has any complete safe havens."
The foreign ministry later released a statement condemning the presence of Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban in "ungoverned spaces" inside neighbouring Afghanistan.
The groups named by the BRICS include anti-India militant factions such as Jaish-e-Mohammad, which was blamed for a 2001 attack on India's parliament, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India blames for cross-border attacks including a 2008 assault in its financial capital Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.
Another group the BRICS named was the Haqqani network, which is allied with the Afghan Taliban militants waging war on the US-backed government in Kabul and foreign forces there.
China is also concerned about Islamist influence spilling over from Pakistan and Afghanistan into its far-western Xinjiang region, where some members of a Muslim minority chafe at Chinese Communist Party rule.
http://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/pakistan-at-odds-with-brics-on-militants/news-story/4d7afd950ea3a380450bb3536fa5ee8f

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