Islamabad: Amid a surge in attacks by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that the banned militant group was still using Afghan soil to carry out attacks inside the country, a media report said on Tuesday.
Asif expressed his concern at the TTP using neighbouring Afghanistan for terrorism in an interview with the Voice of America on Monday, the Dawn newspaper reported.
“TTP is using (the) Afghan soil even today for attacks in our country, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the minister said, adding that Pakistan enjoys good ties with the interim Taliban government.
Asif’s remarks come as Pakistan has witnessed a surge in TTP violence since peace talks between the militant group and the government began to falter in the latter half of last year.
The TTP formally ended the ceasefire on November 28 and has executed more than 100 attacks since then.
Many of these attacks were planned and directed by the militant group’s leadership based in Afghanistan.
During the interview, Asif recalled that the issue of increased attacks by the TTP was brought to the notice of the Afghan Taliban rulers during his recent visit to Kabul.
Earlier this year, a Pakistani delegation comprising of Asif, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed Khan, Charge d’Affaires to Afghanistan Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani and Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq visited the Afghan capital for talks on security-related matters, including counter-terrorism measures.
“(In the meeting) The (Afghan) Taliban had expressed their determination to deal with this problem and said that they won’t allow their land to be used for terrorism as per the Doha Agreement,” the minister said in the interview.
According to the report, Asif said the Afghan Taliban and TTP shared a “camaraderie” because they have been fighting against NATO for the past 20 years.
“According to my information on TTP militants, between 7,000 to 8,000 of them have been involved in the war against Nato with the Afghan Taliban,” the defence minister was quoted as saying.
“In this context, there is a camaraderie between the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban which was also seen in their (Afghan Taliban’s) words during our meetings that they are not in a position to oppose them (TTP), but they also want to help Pakistan,” he added.
Asif also said that the banned militant group was equipped with advanced weapons, such as night vision goggles left behind by the American forces when they withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Talking about the recent protests in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province against rising militancy, the minister said the province’s residents were not ready to “co-exist” with the TTP.
“It is remarkable that people are protesting unarmed against the return of the Taliban (in Pakistan). These people have been poisoned by the Taliban in the past as well, Asif said.
“What is encouraging is that people protested of their own will. They did not protest in the past. They have realised that they don’t want to live with the TTP, considering the peaceful life they have lived in the last eight to 10 years,” he added.
The minister also admitted that due to the political situation in Pakistan, protests against militancy in several areas of the country were often overlooked by the media.
In response to a question, the minister said there was no difference between the TTP and the Afghan Taliban.
“But according to our talks with the Afghan Taliban it seems that they want to distance themselves from the TTP,” Asif pointed out, adding that the Afghan Taliban were “politically astute” people.
Asif’s remarks came days after the National Security Committee (NSC) – the principal decision-making body on national security matters – agreed to launch an “all-out comprehensive operation” to rid the country of the menace of terrorism, the report said. PTI SH
