President Ghani vows to make Afghanistan ‘graveyard of terror’

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has said his government is determined to “make Afghanistan [a] graveyard of terror,” identifying terrorism as the major challenge facing the region.

Ghani made the remarks on Tuesday in a speech to the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a government think tank in the Indian capital of New Delhi.

“Terror must be confronted and must be overcome… Our will must not be underestimated and we will not be beaten to submission,” said Ghani, adding that terror must be “contained if the disease is to be cured,” according to Afghanistan's Khaama Press (KP).

The Afghan president also said peace was the main goal of his government as “the shadow of terror haunts our children, our women, our youth.”

Ghani called for regional cooperation to defeat the militants spreading violence, as Afghanistan has become a battlefield where Afghans “are fighting on behalf of neighboring and regional nations from India to Russia.”