The chair of the United Nations Security Council’s Daesh and Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee has cautioned that the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) poses a serious and growing threat to the region, noting that the group has carried out multiple high-profile attacks in Pakistan from Afghan territory, some resulting in mass casualties.
Presenting a report to the Security Council, Denmark’s Deputy Permanent Representative Sandra Jensen Landi said that the TTP — comprising roughly 6,000 fighters — remains a major regional danger, benefiting from both logistical and significant support from the “de facto” Afghan authorities.
She said that the TTP, with its approximately 6,000 fighters, is a serious threat emanating from the region, receiving both logistical and substantial support from the “de facto” authorities.
Landi made that statement as the 15-member Council was briefed by the heads of three of its subsidiary bodies — which relate to Daesh/Al-Qaeda, UN counter-terrorism efforts and measures to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to non-State actors — hearing that the threat posed by terrorism continues to evolve, especially in Africa, as malign actors exploit new technologies to pursue dangerous ends.
Islamabad and Kabul are witnessing heightened tensions amid the Afghan Taliban regime’s reluctance to act against terrorist groups operating from its soil, in the backdrop of rising terror attacks in Pakistan.
Commenting on the report, Pakistan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Usman Jadoon, said the country has rendered invaluable sacrifices in its efforts to eradicate this menace, with over 80,000 casualties and billions of dollars in economic losses.
Al-Qaeda, he added, was decimated largely due to Pakistan’s efforts.
“Our valiant security forces and law enforcement agencies continue to counter the terrorism threat emanating from Afghanistan where entities like ISIL-K, TTP and its affiliates, BLA (Balochistan Liberation Army) and its Majeed Brigade are thriving under the patronage of their hosts and backed by our principle adversary and net destabiliser in the region,” he said, without naming India.
Ambassador Jadoon said that the 1267 Committee’s sanctions regime must “reflect ground realities”, and that listing and delisting issues must be dealt with “in a fair, transparent and judicious manner and without political considerations”.
The Pakistani envoy also stressed that, to adopt a zero-tolerance approach, the UN’s counter-terrorism architecture “must also possess the necessary tools to designate violent, far-right, extreme right-wing, ultranationalist, xenophobic and Islamophobic groups around the world”.
Separately, the representative of China, urged members of the committee to support the listing of the Balochistan Liberation Army and its Majeed Brigade, “sending a strong signal of zero-tolerance for terrorism
Islamabad-Kabul tensions
The tensions between the two neighbouring nations escalated when the Taliban forces and India-backed TTP, also known as Fitna al-Khawarij, resorted to an unprovoked attack on Pakistan on October 12.
The Pakistan Armed Forces gave a befitting response to the aggression, killing over 200 Afghan Taliban and affiliated militants in a self-defence action.
The military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said that 23 soldiers embraced martyrdom in the clashes with the Taliban forces and the terrorists.
Furthermore, the security forces also conducted “precision strikes” in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province and the capital Kabul, as well as in the border areas of North and South Waziristan districts, successfully destroying multiple strongholds in response to the aggression.
The two sides had agreed on a temporary ceasefire during the Doha talks on October 19 and later held several meetings in Istanbul, with Pakistan aiming to devise a mechanism to stop cross-border terrorism emanating from Afghan soil.
The Istanbul talks could not deliver the desired results due to stubbornness from the Afghan side, as Kabul used the Istanbul talks to malign Pakistan rather than address Islamabad’s core concern of terrorism emanating from Afghan soil.
