Following US President Donald Trump’s pledge to take back military equipment left behind in Afghanistan during troops withdrawal in 2021, the Foreign Office said that the advanced weapons have been an issue of profound concern for the safety and security of Pakistan and its citizens.
“These weapons, left behind in the aftermath of the withdrawal of its troops in August 2021, have been used by terrorist organisations, including the TTP, to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan,” FO spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said in a statement on Wednesday.
He noted that Pakistan has been “repeatedly calling upon the de facto authorities in Kabul to take all necessary measures to ensure that these weapons do not fall into the wrong hands”.
Although it was Trump’s first administration that signed the deal with the Taliban to withdraw forces from Afghanistan, the president strongly slammed the way the Joe Biden administration handled the pullout.
Biden carried out the agreement, with the Western-backed Afghanistan government swiftly collapsing and the Taliban retaking power. The scenes of chaos in Kabul drew criticism, especially when scores of Afghans and around 13 American troops died in a suicide bombing at the city’s airport.
