FM rejects Ghani's tweets as gross interference.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday angrily reacted to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's tweets expressing concern on a crackdown on protests by a Pakhtun rights movement and asked him to instead look inwards and address the grievances of his own people.

'We reject the tweet by President Ashraf Ghani. Such irresponsible statements are only gross interference,' Mr Qureshi shot back, saying: 'Afghan leadership needs to focus on long-standing serious grievances of the Afghan people.'

President Ghani had earlier tweeted: 'The Afghan government has serious concerns about the violence perpetrated against peaceful protesters and civil activists in Khyber PakhAtunkhwa and Balochistan.'

The Afghan president was referring to the death of an activist during an alleged police crackdown on a protest in Loralai and the unrest over allegations of harassment of a family in Khaisoor.

In his second tweet, President Ghani said: 'We believe it is the moral responsibility of every government to support civil activities that take a stand against the terrorism and extremism that plagues and threatens our region and collective security. Otherwise there could be long-standing negative consequences.'

Pakistan's security establishment believes that the protests by the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) are being manipulated by hostile external elements as part of what it calls the...