WASHINGTON: Pakistan has warned the UN Security Council that terrorist groups operating from sanctuaries inside Afghanistan pose the gravest threat to its national security, urging stronger international action against networks using both physical and digital platforms to target the country.

Ambassador Asim Ifti­khar Ahmed, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, told a Council meeting on Afghanistan on Tuesday that entities like Al Qaeda, IS-Khorasan, TTP, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Baloch insurgent groups such as the BLA and Majeed Brigade continue to operate with impunity from across the border.

“We have credible evidence of collaboration among these groups through joint training, illicit weapons trade, refuge to terrorists and coordinated attacks,” he said. More than 60 terrorist camps function as hubs for infiltration, targeting civilians, security forces and development projects inside Pakistan, he added.

The envoy said the threat extended to cyberspace, where nearly 70 propaganda accounts traced to Afghan IP addresses were spreading extremist messaging. “Curb­ing these networks requires full cooperation from social media platforms with governments,” he stressed.

Ambassador Ahmed said Pakistan and China had jointly asked the Security Council’s 1267 Sanctions Committee to designate the BLA and Majeed Brigade as terrorist organisations. He urged the Council to act swiftly on the request to curb their terrorist activities.

He also pointed to the TTP, describing it as the largest UN-designated group on Afghan soil with nearly 6,000 fighters. Pakistan, he said, had thwarted multiple infiltration attempts, seizing caches of sophisticated military equipment abandoned by international forces during their withdrawal from Afghanistan. “These efforts come at a heavy price … just this month, 12 Pakistani soldiers were martyred in a single incident,” he noted.

He said that while four years of Taliban rule had ended decades of civil war, the country remained mired in sanctions, poverty, narcotics and human rights concerns.

He lamented that the UN’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan had received only 27pc of its required $2.42 billion.

The envoy reminded the Council that Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees for over four decades, often with inadequate international assistance.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2025