Kabul complicit in TTP attacks: Pak envoy

Pakistan has, yet again, drawn the attention of the international community towards the greatest threat to the security and stability in Afghanistan — and the entire region, saying it will take all necessary measures to stop cross-border terrorist attacks.

In a statement during the UN Security Council briefing on Afghanistan on Monday, Pakistan's envoy noted that the Afghan interim government utterly failed in addressing the threat posed to the region and beyond by Afghan-based terrorist outfits such as Al-Qaeda, the TTP and Baloch terrorists, including the BLA and the Majeed Brigade.

Ambassador Munir Akram, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which was perceived as enjoying Kabul's patronage, had been fast emerging as an umbrella organisation for regional terrorist groups, whose objectives, he added, were to undermine the security and stability of all of Afghanistan's neighbours.

"Given its long association with Al-Qaeda, the TTP could pose not only a regional but also a global terrorist threat," the ambassador emphasised. He said that the TTP, with 6,000 fighters, was the largest, designated terrorist organisation operating from Afghanistan.

"With safe havens close to our border, the TTP has conducted numerous attacks against Pakistan's soldiers, civilians and institutions resulting in hundreds of casualties," he added. "We have evidence that the Kabul authorities have not only tolerated but are also complicit in the conduct of the TTP's terrorist cross-border attacks."

Ambassador Akram noted that the TTP was collaborating with other terrorist groups present in Afghanistan, like the BLA and the Majeed Brigade, which sought to destabilise Pakistan and "disrupt our economic cooperation" with China, especially the CPEC, through their terrorist campaign. "The TTP also receives external support and financing from our principal adversary."