After the suicide attacks in Pakistan, the Afghan Supreme Leader Akhundzada warns the troops

Days after Pakistan claimed Afghans were responsible for a wave of suicide strikes there, the defence minister said that Afghanistan’s top Taliban official had advised Taliban fighters against attacking foreign targets.

In an address to Afghan security forces that was shown on state television on Saturday, Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid said that fighting outside of Afghanistan is not religiously sanctioned “jihad” but rather war, which has been forbade by Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

According to Mujahid, Akhundzada added, “If somebody travels outside of Afghanistan for the sake of jihad, it won’t be termed jihad. “This is war, not jihad,” the emir declares, if the mujahideen (fighters) refuse to engage in combat.

The comments came days after a fatal blast claimed by the Islamic State group close to the shared border between the two nations, when Islamabad said terrorists behind a string of suicide strikes in Pakistan were receiving assistance from “Afghan citizens” over the border.

Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, said Pakistani terrorists were operating from “sanctuaries” in the neighboring nation but refrained from accusing the Taliban leadership of Afghanistan of intentionally permitting assaults from its territory.

Since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan two years ago, Pakistan has seen a sharp increase in terrorist strikes targeted at its western border districts. Both adversary IS and Afghan Taliban ally Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have claimed responsibility for these attacks.

The TTP was established in 2007 by militants from Pakistan who broke away from the Afghan Taliban to concentrate their wrath on Islamabad for backing America’s invasion of Afghanistan. Since then, the TTP has carried out a murderous campaign of bombings and other assaults across Pakistan.

Taliban leaders in Afghanistan claim that no armed organizations planning attacks on other countries are allowed to utilize their territory for such purposes.

The Arabic word “jihad” is used in Islam to refer to a variety of religious fights, from engaging in warfare to engaging in personal spiritual battles.