Join hands against TTP

The presence of more than 50,000 fighters in the landlocked state is a threat to world peace

Pakistan has brought a very pertinent and soul-searching riddle before the UN Security Council. It wants the world to probe from where the non-state actors in Afghanistan are enjoying access to modern and lethal weapons. This inventory is necessary in the backdrop of TTP’s surge in the war-torn state, and their unchecked activities on both sides of Durand Line. It is, indeed, a mystery that despite a stringent counter-terrorism mechanism at hand, and cooperation of regional states to stem terrorism and gun-trafficking, the TTP and their ilk are scot-free.

While Islamabad has been on the receiving end of terror fissures, it is well within its rights to question Kabul as to why it has not prevailed over such dreaded elements, and not been able to keep its promise of making sure that its territory is not used against its neighbours. Ambassador Munir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent envoy at the UN, was thus on the spot as he called upon the UNSC to join Islamabad in its demand of Kabul to sever ties with the outlawed TTP.

The presence of more than 50,000 fighters in the landlocked state, and their mushrooming over the period of time with similar entities in the region, and beyond, is a threat to world peace. It makes a convincing argument that the impugned war on terrorism is yet to be won, and any effort on the part of major powers to abdicate their responsibility is a precursor to disaster. This is why Pakistan is again experiencing the flashback of disgruntled elements who had taken refuge in sleeper cells of TTP, and are coming back to gun it.

The foiled attack at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi is a grim reminder of a similar bloodletting incident in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the past. Likewise, the fact that TTP had staged a comeback in Pakistan and has laid its hand on state-of-the-art weaponry in Afghanistan thickens the plot to probe as to who are the abettors and beneficiaries. The mosaic of revulsion, of late, goes on to include the restive Balochistan, K-P and southern Punjab that has seen more than 1,500 terror attacks in the last 18 months.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2024.

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