From Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), Ambassador Munir Akram, has informed the world community about terrorist organisations operating from Afghanistan.
Addressing the UN Security Council briefing on Afghanistan, Munir Akram said that the Afghan interim government has failed to address the menace of Afghanistan-based terrorist outfits, including Al-Qaida, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
Munir Akram said that the TTP, a terrorist organisation operating from Afghanistan and comprising around 6,000 militants, has been launching attacks on Pakistan from safe havens along the Afghanistan border.
“These attacks have resulted in significant loss of life, targeting Pakistani soldiers, civilians, and state institutions,” Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN said. He said that TTP, which is perceived as enjoying Kabul’s patronage, is fast emerging as an umbrella organization for regional terrorist groups.
“There are credible evidences that Kabul authorities are not only tolerating but also complicit in the TTP’s cross-border terrorist attacks,” Munir Akram added.
Earlier, Pakistan has, yet again, drawn the attention of the international community to the greatest threat to security and stability in Afghanistan – and the entire region, and indeed the world from the over 20 terrorist organizations present in Afghanistan. Pakistan also noted that the Afghan interim government utterly failed to address the threat posed to the region and beyond by Afghanistan-based terrorist outfits such as Al-Qaida, the TTP and Baloch terrorists, including the BLA and the Majeed Brigade.
In a statement during the UN Security Council briefing on Afghanistan today, Ambassador Munir Akram, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is perceived as enjoying Kabul’s patronage, is fast emerging as an umbrella organization for regional terrorist groups, whose objectives, he said, are to undermine the security and stability of all of Afghanistan’s neighbors.
“Given its long association with Al-Qaeda, the TTP could pose not only a regional but also a global terrorist threat,” the Pakistan UN ambassador emphasized. Ambassador Akram said that the TTP, with 6000 fighters, is the largest, designated terrorist organization operating from Afghanistan. He said that with safe havens close to our border, the TTP has conducted numerous attacks against Pakistan’s soldiers, civilians and institutions resulting in hundreds of casualties. “We have evidence that the Kabul authorities have not only tolerated but are also complicit in the conduct of the TTP’s terrorist cross-border attacks,” he stressed.
Ambassador Akram further noted that the TTP is collaborating with other terrorist groups present in Afghanistan, like the BLA and the Majeed Brigade, which seek to destabilize Pakistan and disrupt our economic cooperation with China, especially the CPEC, through their terrorist campaign.
The TTP also receives external support and financing from our principal adversary, he said.
The Pakistan UN envoy expressed his surprise at the Secretary-General’s report, entitled “the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security,” which failed to cover the issue of terrorism.
He said that we are offered the bureaucratic explanation that UNAMA’s mandate does not cover counter-terrorism, which we are told is the mandate of the Office of Counter-Terrorism (OCT). He explained that the OCT’s work program includes CT efforts relating to Central Asia and Afghanistan; but not Pakistan – which is facing daily terrorist attacks – or Iran, China or Russia.
“Nor has the 1988 Taliban Committee, or the 1373 CT Committee, been activated so far to address the terrorist threat in and from Afghanistan. Pakistan will initiate consultations on the creation of an appropriate mechanism to address this issue, including a Working Group on CT within the Doha process,” he announced.
