The Taliban has slammed the Pakistan Government for blaming Afghanistan for the Peshawar mosque blast. The Taliban’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Muttaqi called on Pakistan to investigate the Peshawar attack rather than blame neighbouring Afghanistan for terror carnage. “Don’t blame others for your own failures,” said the Taliban.
On January 30, a suicide bombing at a mosque in the Peshawar Police Lines area claimed the lives of at least 101 people, mostly police officials.
Muttaqi called on Pakistan to investigate the Peshawar attack instead of blaming Kabul and said that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for terrorists.
“If Afghanistan was the centre of terrorism, it would have gone into China, Central Asia & Iran,” he said.
Muttaqi told a gathering in the capital, Kabul, that Pakistani officials should find a solution to their security challenges locally and desist from “sowing the seeds of enmity” between the two countries.
Pakistani authorities were quick to blame the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also called Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), for what they said was a suicide bomb attack and suggested the violence emanated from Afghanistan, reported Voice of America.
Muttaqi echoed suspicions and questions being raised by critics in Pakistan in the wake of the large-scale destruction caused by the blast and said, “Our region is used to wars and bomb blasts. But we have not seen in the past 20 years a lone suicide bomber blowing up roofs of mosques and killing hundreds of people.”