Afghanistan defends India's surgical strikes in PoK, calls them 'self defence'

New Delhi: Afghanistan on Friday backed India's surgical strikes on terror launch pads in PoK, terming it as an act of "self-defence", and in a strong message to Pakistan asserted that time has come to take "tough" and "risky" decisions to deal with the menace of terrorism.

Afghanistan's Ambassador to India Shaida Abdali said his country does not make distinction between terrorist groups and is against all such organisations that pose a danger and threat to any country in the world.

When asked about Afghanistan's stand on the surgical strikes undertaken by India in PoK, Abdali told reporters at The Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia,"We hope that no one will allow its territory as a safe haven for terrorists to be used against neighbouring countries."

Read: India raids PoK after 45 years, destroys 7 terror pads along LoC

"If terrorist groups continue to exist without action, no wonder self-defence against such terrorist groups will be in the form of action that we saw," he said, referring to the surgical strikes conducted by India on seven terror launch pads across the LoC with the Army inflicting "significant casualties" on terrorists preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Abdali said it was "high time we take tough decisions" and they may be "risky" but are needed to be taken to end terrorism.

He said such decisions may have a cost but the cost is worth it because "we have to end this continued terrorism that affects our people, our lives every day and is taking our vision backward day by day."

"We have to fight a phenomenon that is going to inflict us in a much bigger way....the core is that we have to act. The problem that we have is that it is increasingly taking our lives so at whatever cost, we have to end it," Abdali said.

After India, Afghanistan was among three other countries which pulled out of the SAARC summit to be hosted by Pakistan.

In a terse statement Afghanistan said, "Due to the increased level of violence and fighting as a result of imposed terrorism on Afghanistan, the President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani with his responsibilities as the Commander in Chief will be fully engaged, and will not be able to attend the Summit."

The Afghan envoy said he can see Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking "bold decisions" and emphasised that there was a need for the leaderships in the region and the governments to take bold decisions and "risks in order to free ourselves (from terrorism) for good".

Asked about the situation in Balochistan and the human rights violations there, Abdali said, "We have a problem of terrorism and Balochistan is our neighbour. We are being affected from our neighbourhood. Terrorism exists and at the same time people suffer there."

"We want to fight terrorism for the sake of all of us. For the sake of the common people of Pakistan, for the Balochis there and for all others living there, especially the

Pashtuns. So we would like to end the atrocity, the wars in whatever forms there may be in order for the people to live freely," the Afghan envoy said.