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Pakistan To Share Evidence Air Base Attack Came From Afghanistan


Emergency teams transfer unidentified bodies and injured victims with ambulances after militants attacked a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base on the outskirts of Peshawar on September 18.
Emergency teams transfer unidentified bodies and injured victims with ambulances after militants attacked a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base on the outskirts of Peshawar on September 18.

Pakistan said September 21 it would share evidence that militants who killed 29 people at a Pakistani air base last week launched their attack from Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high-level security meeting to discuss the attack on Badaber air base on September 18 and decided to share evidence with Kabul while trying to improve management of the porous border between the two countries, the government said.

Pakistan maintains the attack by a splinter group of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan was planned and executed from Afghanistan. But Afghan President Ashraf Ghani vehemently denies that while condemning the attack.

A security official told dpa that Pakistan will not take "strict measures" against Kabul for not stopping the attack.

"Pakistan believes that any actions like closure of the border will weaken the [Afghan] government...which is against our interests," the official said.

The assault on the air base bolstered fears that Taliban militants still can mount major attacks despite extensive army operations against them.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have failed to come up with a joint strategy to defeat militants that operate across their borders, and often exchange blame for such attacks.

Based on reporting by dpa and AFP
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