'Taliban's safe havens inside, not outside Afghanistan'

Taliban "safe havens" are inside Afghanistan not outside, Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi has said.

"The resilience of the insurgency led by the Taliban cannot be explained away by convenient references to external 'safe havens' or 'support centres'," Lodhi told the 15-member UN Security Council during a debate on Afghanistan on Wednesday. Relations between the two countries have turned sour since Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani accused Pakistan of waging an "undeclared war of aggression" against his country, Dawn reported on Thursday.

Pakistan, Lodhi asserted, was committed not to allow its territory to be used for terrorism against other countries. "Pakistan's Zarb-e-Azb and subsequent Raddul Fasaad military operations had succeeded in eliminating all terrorist and militant groups from its tribal territory bordering Afghanistan," she said. She said that Islamabad was "implementing border controls, including the fencing and monitoring of sections of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border."