AFGHANISTAN -PAKISTAN- BARBINGS

WASHINGTON : Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammed Hanif Atmar has said that if Pakistan wants, it can end terrorism in Afghanistan by-

*Choking the routes that insurgents use for entering the war-ravaged country.

However, Pakistan's Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir rejected the Afghan claim, while pointing out that nearly half of Afghanistan was under the Taliban's control and-

They did not need sanctuaries in Pakistan to continue and grow their activities.

Both officials made these claims in interviews to the Voice of America this week, as the United States sent yet another official to Islamabad on Thursday for talks with Pakistani leaders.

Ambassador Alice Wells traveled  from Afghanistan to Pakistan to:

''Discuss our South Asia strategy and Pakistan's stated commitment to eliminate all terrorist groups present in its country,'' said the US State Department in a statement issued in Washington.

''There will be no foreign fighters without Taliban in Afghanistan and there will no Taliban insurgency without sanctuaries in Pakistan,'' the Afghan national security adviser told VOA..........

''So we need some action.'' 

But Pakistan's Defence Minister rejected his argument:

''You don't control 45 percent of Afghanistan  and don't know what is going on there, who is moving in and moving out of that safe haven, but you keep blaming us,'' he said.

In a story based on two interviews, VOA noted that US President Donald Trump's South Asia's  strategy:

Has not changed Afghanistan's fundamental challenge, the presence of armed and motivated militants who show no sign of giving up the fight.