Islamabad: PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry on Thursday said the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan could not be eliminated without the support of the Afghanistan government.

Interestingly, Afghanistan is currently ruled by the Taliban.

He said the issue of terrorism cannot be solved without stable diplomatic ties with the government in Afghanistan, reports Dawn News.

“Only using [military] force would further complicate the issue,” he was quoted as saying by Dawn News, adding that terrorists carry out attacks in Pakistan and then escape to Afghanistan.

He also claimed there was no terrorism during his party’s government from 2018 to 2022 because former prime minister Imran Khan believed in non-military solution to the Afghanistan issue.

Chaudhry said the PTI government had succeeded in curbing terrorism effectively and no major terrorist attack took place.

This was despite the fact that the region was passing through a major transitional period as the US troops were withdrawing from Afghanistan, added Chaudhry.

He added that ex-PM Khan knew the leadership of Afghanistan and was cognisant to the fact that war was not the solution.

“So, he launched an initiative which was widely welcomed and peace was restored in the country,” he said.

“We brought the country back to tourism from terrorism within nine months,” he added.

Incidentally, TTP claimed responsibility for the recent blast inside a Peshawar mosque which left 100 people, mostly policemen, killed.