Mahmoud Saiqal, Afghanistan's Permanent Representative in the United Nations, on Friday officially complained to the United Nations Security Council against territorial integrity violations by Pakistan.
Saiqal said in past two months, Pakistani military has violated Afghanistan's territorial integrity 59 times.
“From January to today we recorded at least 59 violations of Afghan territory by Pakistani military forces including three violations of our air space, over 1,375 cross frontier artillery shillings that caused dozens of causalities, displacement of 450 families in the middle of cold winter in our eastern provinces,” he added.
Saiqal said Pakistan is a safe haven for terrorists and without eliminating these havens, peace would not come to Afghanistan.
“Tragically it has moved with an undeclared war by a neighboring state that has for many years and still continues to coordinate, facilitate and orchestrate violence to proxy forces and more 20 terrorist networks," he stated.
At the same event, Sima Samar, chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said they are disappointed with the UNSC decision on removing Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s name from UN sanctions list.
“We are disappointed with the security council decision to take the name of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar from the black list. And blank amnesty that the government of Afghanistan provided to him and his commanders. We believe they have committed crimes and violated human rights in the past four decades,” she said.
Meahwhile, according to UN report which was briefed at the Security Council meeting, the overall security situation in Afghanistan continued to deteriorate throughout 2016 and into 2017. The United Nations recorded 23,712 security incidents, an almost 5 per cent increase compared with 2015 and the highest number in a single year ever recorded by UNAMA.
According to the report, in 2016 fights between Afghan security forces and Taliban increased by 22 percent.
On counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan, the report says an increase in poppy cultivation of 10 percent compared with 2015 and a 45 percent increase in opium production is noted.
The increase is largely attributed to a larger yield per hectare and the fact that poppy cultivation areas subject to eradication decreased by 91 percent, the report added.