ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former Special Envoy on Afghanistan, Ambassador Asif Durrani has revealed that there has been a 70 per cent increase in TTP attacks along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan since the arrival of the Taliban in 2021.
Alarmingly, many Afghan nationals have been found in the TTP formations attacking Pakistan’s border areas.
Of late, the Taliban officials have been denying the presence of the TTP, advising Pakistan to engage with the TTP in a dialogue.
Pak envoy in Kabul spells out challenges facing Pakistan
Former Ambassador and Pakistan’s Special Envoy on Afghanistan, Asif Ali Durrani told this while speaking to a seminar at Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI).
However, one can see the contradiction in the Afghan Taliban’s words and deeds that, while they deny the presence of the TTP on Afghan soil, they offer to mediate between the TTP and Government of Pakistan (GoP). The question arises of how they can mediate if the TTP leadership and cadres are not in Afghanistan, he pointed out. “How TTP and other terrorist organisations are managing their finances is yet another crucial question”, he said, adding, Pakistan has been making demarches with the important capitals about the Indian financing of the TTP and Baloch dissident organizations through the Afghan proxies.
Indian financing of these terrorist organisations continues unabated to keep Pakistan under pressure. It would be in the interest of India not to use the Afghan soil as a second front against Pakistan, for throwing stones while sitting in the glass house may ultimately hurt India, Durrani added.
Former diplomat said, with the US withdrawal, Afghanistan is off the radar; it is no longer in the news, even in the inner pages of international media. The Ukraine war and the Palestinian genocide have diverted their attention from Afghanistan. However, a continuation of ISKP and TTP activities from Afghanistan poses a formidable threat to the immediate neighbours and beyond. In a situation where the US and European countries are paying the least attention to Afghanistan despite three Doha rounds under the United Nations (UN) auspices.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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