Future Afghan government must deal with anti-Pakistan TTP network — foreign office

Pakistani flags (C) and Taliban flag (R) flutter on their respective border sides as seen from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing point in Chaman on August 18, 2021. (AFP)

• Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella organization of armed factions, has killed thousands of Pakistanis since its creation in 2007
• Pakistan’s foreign office also expressed concern over the release of TTP prisoners in Afghanistan after the Afghan Taliban captured Kabul

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office on Friday expressed its concern over the presence of a militant network in Afghanistan that has been targeting Pakistani civilians and security forces, saying that the future Afghan government must not provide any space to the group.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organization of various armed Islamist groups, came into being in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region in 2007.
Inspired by Al Qaeda, it launched several attacks against Pakistani security forces, including the storming of the army’s Rawalpindi headquarters in October 2019, and killed more than 100 school children in December 2014.
“We have been taking up the issue of use of Afghan soil by the TTP for terrorist activities in Pakistan with the previous Afghan government and we will continue raising the issue with the future Afghan government as well to ensure that TTP is not provided any space in Afghanistan to operate against Pakistan,” foreign office spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said during his weekly news briefing.
“In a recent meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, we reiterated that Afghan soil must not be used against Pakistan for any terrorist activity,” he continued.
Last week, Pakistani President Arif Alvi said his country wanted similar security guarantees from the Afghan Taliban that they had offered to the United States and China by telling the two countries that no militant faction would be allowed to use the Afghan soil to target another country.
The foreign office spokesperson reiterated the same position during his media briefing, saying his country had a clear position on the TTP which it considered “a terrorist organization that is proscribed by Pakistan as well as the United Nations.”
Asked about the recent release of prisoners in Afghanistan, including TTP leaders like Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, Chaudhri said: “We have seen some media reports in this regard. We have and continue to oppose support for any individual or any proscribed groups and outfits that remained involved in terrorist activities inside Pakistan, without discrimination.”
He expressed his hope that the future Afghan administration would take “strict measures” to ensure the Afghan soil was not used against other states in the world.