Islamabad: Pakistan handed over 27 individuals suspected of having ties to the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network to Afghanistan last year, Foreign Office (FO) spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said Tuesday.
In a series of tweets, the FO spokesman said Pakistan is continuing to push any suspected Afghan Taliban and Haqqani elements with a view to “prevent them from using our soil for any terrorist activity in Afghanistan”. The suspected militants were handed over to Afghanistan in November 2017, he said.
Faisal also mentioned that Pakistan has lost “75,000 civilians and 6,000 soldiers to the scourge of terrorism and suffered $123 billion in economic losses”.
“We have one of the highest officer-to-soldier casualty rate[s] globally,” he wrote. Separately, in an interview with state-run radio, the spokesman said the Quadrilateral Coordination Group comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States and China was the most appropriate forum to promote the Afghan peace process.
Published in Daily Times, January 31st 2018.
