TTP threat

Published March 8, 2024

DURING a discussion in the Security Council on Wednesday, Pakistani Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram rightly observed that, left unchecked, the banned TTP could become “a global terrorist threat”. Considering the TTP’s links with Al Qaeda, and its blood-soaked campaign inside Pakistan, the world should be concerned about the group’s activities. Mr Akram added that it needed to be probed how the TTP could secure high-grade weapons, and from where it acquired its funds. He also asked the UNSC to endorse Pakistan’s demand that the Afghan Taliban cut their ties with the TTP. This demand is not new; Islamabad has publicly and privately, in subtle as well as stronger language, called upon Kabul to rein in the TTP. Pakistan’s calls have been met with a mixed response: there has been little action by the Afghan Taliban, though they have claimed they will not let their soil be used by anti-Pakistan militants. There are reports they have imprisoned some TTP fighters and shifted them away from the Pakistan border. But the attacks have not stopped.

What is needed from Kabul are solid steps, not half measures. Clamping down on the TTP, and then allowing them to wreak havoc in Pakistan will not work. At the UNSC meeting, Roza Otunbayeva, the secretary general’s special representative on Afghanistan, appeared to endorse Pakistan’s position, observing that “there are well-founded concerns over the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan”, while mentioning the TTP by name. Pakistan’s new government should implement a dual-track policy to neutralise the TTP threat. Firstly, it must keep channels with the Afghan Taliban open and continue to communicate its concerns about terrorist activity originating in Afghanistan. Secondly, Pakistan should cooperate with other states at the UN as well as regional blocs, such as the SCO, to make it clear to Kabul that hosting militants will end any chance of wider acceptance of the Afghan Taliban regime by the international community.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2024

Opinion

Editorial

Energy inflation
Updated 23 May, 2024

Energy inflation

The widening gap between the haves and have-nots is already tearing apart Pakistan’s social fabric.
Culture of violence
23 May, 2024

Culture of violence

WHILE political differences are part of the democratic process, there can be no justification for such disagreements...
Flooding threats
23 May, 2024

Flooding threats

WITH temperatures in GB and KP forecasted to be four to six degrees higher than normal this week, the threat of...
Bulldozed bill
Updated 22 May, 2024

Bulldozed bill

Where once the party was championing the people and their voices, it is now devising new means to silence them.
Out of the abyss
22 May, 2024

Out of the abyss

ENFORCED disappearances remain a persistent blight on fundamental human rights in the country. Recent exchanges...
Holding Israel accountable
22 May, 2024

Holding Israel accountable

ALTHOUGH the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor wants arrest warrants to be issued for Israel’s prime...