Situation at Pak-Afghan border normal, under control: DG ISPR
News Desk :
Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Babar Iftikhar on Friday said that the situation at the Pak-Afghan border is normal and under control. “Pakistan’s side of the border is secure”.
Addressing a news conference, the DG ISPR stated that he said he would talk about the evolving situation in Afghanistan and the implied national security problems that Pakistan could face, along with the measures the armed forces had taken and would continue to take to “ward off any spillover of insecurity and instability into Pakistan”.
Prior to the Taliban’s take over of Kabul, the military situation in the war-torn country “unfolded rapidly”, he said, adding that Pakistan had already started taking the measures it needed to guard the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and to ensure security.
Pakistan had apprehensions that the situation would unfold in the way that it did and there could be a “spillover”, which is why it took the steps it did, he elaborated.
He recalled that Pakistan had started “beefing up” its security since 2014, including Operation Zarb-i-Azb and Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad.
“The political and military leadership in Pakistan had the foresight that something like this (Taliban takeover in Afghanistan) could happen. So, despite whatever has happened on that side (Afghanistan), the situation on the Pak-Afghan border is normal and under control.”
“This does not mean nothing can happen but we are prepared and won’t be caught unaware,” he added.
Giving the timeline of events as they unfolded in the neighboring country, the DG ISPR said prior to August 15 — when the Taliban entered Kabul — several soldiers belonging to the Afghan National Army entered Pakistan on more than two occasions, seeking safe passage because they feared their posts might come under attack by the Taliban.
