UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations Security Council report has come as a reminder about the persistent threat Pakistan’s security faces from the Afghanistan-based Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), saying the militant group also poses a threat to the region.
“The link between the Taliban and both Al-Qaeda and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) remains strong and symbiotic,” the annual report of the 1988 Taliban sanctions committee monitoring team noted.
The report comes amid escalating TTP attacks inside Pakistani territory to which Pakistan has repeatedly drawn the attention of the international community.
“A range of terrorist groups have greater freedom of manoeuvre under the Taliban de facto authorities,” the report said, adding, “They are making good use of this, and the threat of terrorism is rising in both Afghanistan and the region”.
“While they have sought to reduce the profile of these groups and have conducted operations against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIL-K), in general, the Taliban have not delivered on the counter-terrorism provisions under the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the United States of America and the Taliban.”
The report said there were indications that al-Qaeda is rebuilding operational capability, that TTP is launching attacks into Pakistan with support from the Taliban, that groups of foreign terrorist fighters are projecting threat across Afghanistan’s borders and that the operations of ISIL-K are becoming more sophisticated and lethal “if not more numerous”.
“It is too early to judge the impact of the decree by the Taliban in April 2022 banning poppy cultivation,” the report added.
“At this point,” it said, “prices have increased, as has production of the more profitable methamphetamine. Key Taliban individuals remain closely involved in production and trafficking.”
However, the Afghan Taliban dismissed the report and called it “full of prejudice”, according to media reports.
