In a speech shortly after the attack, Ghani said Pakistan’s efforts to host peace talks between Taliban leaders and Afghan officials were meaningless as long as Taliban attacks continued to take civilian lives.
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“Pakistan still remains a venue and ground for gatherings from which mercenaries send us message of war”, President Ghani told a press conference convened shortly after a massive suicide attack targeted the Kabul global airport, where at least 5 people were killed and more than 16 wounded.
“The last few days have shown that suicide bomber training camps and bomb-producing factories which are killing our people are as active as before in Pakistan”.
Meanwhile, the Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for Monday’s bomb blast near Kabul’s worldwide airport, which left five people dead.
The statement in strong support to Mullah Mansour’s leadership came as the rift within Taliban ranks over succession after the group and the Afghan government announced Mullah Omar’s death last month widened.
“We hoped for peace, but war is declared against us from Pakistani territory; this in fact puts into a display a clear hostility against a neighboring country”, he said, claiming that Pakistan’s next steps would define ties between the two neighbors for coming decades.
Four civilians were killed, and 17 people wounded, including a woman and a child, said Wahidullah Mayar, a spokesman for the public health ministry.
Last Friday, a massive truck bomb in a residential area of Kabul killed at least 15 people and wounded 248. He went to on say that Kabul does not want Islamabad to bring the Taliban to the peace talks but to halt those waging the insurgency against Afghanistan.
They were the first major attacks since Mullah Akhtar Mansour was named as the new Taliban chief in an acrimonious power transition, after the insurgents confirmed Omar’s death. The recent violence was a “turning point” for Afghanistan, just as the December massacre of schoolchildren was for Pakistan, Ghani said.
“We will make peace with those who know about humanity, Islam and the meaning of Afghanistan and do not destroy their country for the interests of outsiders”, he told reporters.
Afghanistan’s nationwide police stand on the entrance gate of Police Academy the aftermath of final night time suicide attack on the police academy, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, August eight, 2015.
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The five who were killed included civilians and members of the Afghan security forces.
