ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and the United States will hold a twoday counter-terrorism dialogue from today (March 6-7) in Islamabad. Additional Secretary (UN&ED) Syed Haider Shah will lead Pakistan delegation and the US delegation will be headed by Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Christopher Landberg. “The dialogue is aimed at discussing common threat of terrorism, cooperation at multilateral fora and countering financing of terrorism,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said yesterday.
She said the two-day dialogue would provide an opportunity for both sides to exchange views and share their experiences and best practices in the domain of counter- terrorism. Last week, a US State Department announcement said that participants in the Islamabad meeting would “develop policy-oriented strategies regarding cooperation in critical areas such as border security and countering the financing of terrorism.”
The talks come against the backdrop of the resurgence in terrorist attacks in Pakistan being linked to Afghanistan.
The violence has killed hundreds of people across the country, most of them security forces. Last month, a high-level Pakistani delegation had visited Kabul, where they conveyed “serious concerns” to Taliban leaders about the escalating terror campaign in Pakistan.
The Pakistani delegation shared “irrefutable” evidence with the Taliban about the presence and activities of militant leaders in Afghanistan, calling for “practical steps” to rein in the terrorist activity. An official Afghan Taliban statement after the meeting said the bilateral talks focused on “security concerns” and “activities of armed opposition groups,” among other issues.
The Taliban came back to power in 2021 as foreign forces withdrew from Afghanistan. No foreign government has recognized them as legitimate rulers of the war-ravaged country so far. The United States and other countries have urged the de facto Afghan authorities to prevent terrorist groups from plotting cross-border attacks, in line with Taliban assurances that they would combat transnational terrorists on Afghan soil.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated the demand at a recent news conference. “The United States and Pakistan have a shared interest in ensuring the Taliban live up to the commitments that they have made, and that terrorist groups that may be active in Afghanistan – like ISIS-K, TTP, al-Qaida are no longer able to threaten regional stability,” Price said. He used an acronym for the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group, known as Islamic State-Khorasan province.
