Pakistan urges Kabul to counter TTP threat: Report

Islamabad [Pakistan], January 18 (ANI): Pakistan has been urging the Afghan Taliban leaders to counter the threat posed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) amid rising terrorist attacks in the country.

However, these efforts by Islamabad have not produced any result as the Afghan Taliban leadership believes that dialogue is the only way to resolve the TTP issue, the Khaama Press reported.

After the disruption of the peace talks process between TTP and the Pakistani government, the TTP has intensified attacks in recent months despite the announcement of a ceasefire. It continued to target security officials, foreign citizens and other government officials across Pakistan, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces, the report by Fidel Rahmati for Khaama Press stated.

The Khaama Press report quotes local sources who said that the National Security Council-Pakistan informed the Afghan government that to fulfil its obligations under the Doha Agreement, including bilateral meetings, Kabul would have to neutralize the TTP threat.

However, the interim Taliban government has asked Pakistan to pursue talks with the Pakistani Taliban to solve the problem.

Since 2021 Pakistan is facing two-sided attacks from Afghan Taliban and Pakistani Taliban which is supported by its ideological brother from Afghanistan.
Since the takeover of the Taliban in Kabul, Pakistan has seen a 50 per cent rise in terror attacks most of which were by Pakistani Taliban (TTP) with the support of Afghan Taliban.

When the Taliban captured Afghanistan in August 2021, then Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan praised the Afghan Taliban by saying it broke the “shackles of slavery”.

In the last two decades, Pakistan had the opportunity to stop using Jihadism as a foreign policy tool and end the use of extreme Islamist factions as an influence. It could have improved on unhealthy civil-military relations, the protection of ethnic minorities and sustainable economic development. Instead, the leaders decided to maintain their support for the Taliban against both the US and its NATO allies and now it faces its consequences.