Islamabad, Jan. 30 (TNS): In a major development, Pakistan claimed to have handed over 27 suspects belonging to the Afghan Taliban and their affiliated Haqqani network to Afghanistan, the Foreign Office said on Tuesday.
The unprecedented move appears to be aimed at dispelling the oft-repeated allegations that Islamabad is supporting violent insurgency in Afghanistan.
The handover took place in November last year just weeks after the maiden visit of army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa to Kabul. However, the extradition of 27 suspected members of the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network was kept confidential till now.
Following the string of terrorist attacks over the last few days in Kabul, Islamabad has been again accused by US and Afghan officials for providing shelter to the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network.
That latest diatribe seemed to have compelled Pakistan to make public its efforts against the Afghan insurgents, including the Haqqani network.
Foreign Offices spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal took to the microblogging site twitter to share the information.
“Pakistan continues to push any suspected TTA & HN elements to prevent them from using our soil for any terrorist activity in Afghanistan,” he said in a tweet.
“In this context, 27 individuals suspected of belonging to TTA & HN have been handed over to Afghanistan in November 2017,” he also tweeted.
