ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has assured visiting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond that Islamabad is still supporting a fragile peace process in neighboring Afghanistan.

His comments on Tuesday came days after the Taliban announced that they would not participate in proposed peace talks with the Afghan government until foreign forces stop attacking their positions and leave the country. The Taliban announcement was seen as a setback to efforts made by Pakistan, Washington and Beijing to arrange face-to-face talks this month between Kabul and the Taliban in Islamabad.

A government statement says Khan made his comments Tuesday during a meeting with Hammond, who arrived here after holding talks with the Afghan leadership.

21 militants killed in northwest

Pakistan said Tuesday it has killed 21 militants in air strikes and ground operations that began overnight in a northwest border region where it is carrying out an offensive to clear Taliban strongholds.

Military spokesman Asim Bajwa said the strikes, which took place in the Shawal Valley of North Waziristan tribal district, began Monday night and continued into Tuesday.

“Ops continue. Imp heights & passes along Pak-Afgn Bdr secured. Valley’s sanitization in progress,” he said on Twitter.

He later posted photographs of soldiers fanning out in a forested area and a ruined building engulfed in smoke.

It was not possible to confirm how many people were killed in the offensive, nor whether they were indeed combatants, as journalists are denied access to the conflict zone.

Meanwhile, the toll from a deadly Taliban suicide bombing on a court complex in northwest Pakistan rose Tuesday after a victim died overnight, officials said.