Allegations of safe heavens in FATA

In response to allegations of safe havens in FATA, the spokesperson of the Foreign Office rightly rejected the claims and reiterated that Pakistan does not allow its territory to be used for attacks against any other country.
In a press statement he stated that efforts of Pakistan to fight against terrorism have been acknowledged by the world; various leaders of US, European Union and other countries have appreciated Pakistan for taking hard stance against militants.
Strong rebuttal of Pakistan came after a report by US State Department that acknowledged that Pakistan is facing difficulties to combat terrorist in FATA and due to remoteness of the area county had limited success in eliminating all terrorist safe havens. State department’s spokesman Mark Toner also agreed with the claims of Afghanistan that terrorists in FATA have the capacity to carry out attacks in Afghanistan at their will. His comments followed twin suicide blasts near the Afghan parliament on Tuesday that killed scores. He further said that Pakistan should realizes that security of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and of entire region is interlinked and therefore collective efforts are required in order to defeat terrorism.
But if we look at the statistics Pakistan is the country in the region which had affected most by terrorism and in last one decade it has lost thousands of its citizens and economic losses of over US$100 billion due to the menace of terrorism. Due to the firm resolve of entire nation and efforts of Pakistan army security and economic situation in the country has improved significantly. Successes of Zarb-e-Azb are apparent in the improved security particularly near Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Pakistan has made significant developments to make bordering region with Afghanistan peaceful and stable and positive result of military actions are quite visible for everyone to see. In the recent past, the US Parliamentarians and Commanders have visited FATA and publicly acknowledged the successes of Pakistan’s counter terrorism drive.
The fact cannot be denied that many terrorist organizations have their presence in Afghanistan. The deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan has created space for terrorist elements as international terrorist outfits like TTA, TTP, Daesh, Al-Qaeda, Jamaat-ul-Ahraar have accepted responsibilities of many terrorist activities in the country. In such a scenario it would not be vise to point fingers on other country.
In reality numbers of terrorist activities in Pakistan were carried out by terrorists hiding in Afghanistan. Pakistan has emphasised that some foreign elements are exploiting the worsening situation and using Afghan soil against Pakistan. Pakistan has already showed serious concerns on active presence of Indian intelligence agency RAW in Afghanistan. Despite all this, Pakistan has said time and again that it links stability of Afghanistan with stability of Pakistan. Pakistan remains committed to peace efforts in Afghanistan as it is not only in the interest of the region but more importantly, Pakistan. Pakistan is engaged in border management which is imperative for effective counter terrorism. Pakistan has also extended its policy of cooperation with international community and Afghanistan to defeat the menace of terrorism. In spite of blaming others, there is need to enhance bilateral coordination to fight monster of terrorism.
It is unfortunate that sincere efforts of Pakistan towards stability in Afghanistan are being maligned.