Pakistan Insists Afghanistan Stop Harboring International Terrorist Groups
Following an upswing of terror attacks in Pakistan attributed to Afghanistan-based groups, high-level Pakistani officials traveled to Kabul for a diplomatic meeting and called on the ruling Taliban to stop supporting terrorist groups
[Islamabad] Pakistan is insisting that the Taliban live up to its commitment to crack down on Afghanistan-based Pakistani terrorist organizations.
During the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2020, the Taliban signed an agreement committing to not allow Afghan soil to be used by international terrorist groups. Pakistani officials claim that the Taliban has not followed through on that promise and that rising terrorism in Pakistan can be attributed to the presence of Pakistani terrorist commanders in Afghanistan.
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, has been responsible for numerous recent terror attacks in Pakistan. The organization has been banned in Pakistan since 2008 and has been classified as a global terrorist organization by the US since 2010.
The TTP is independent from the Afghan Taliban, but the two groups share both an ideology and a methodology. For the past 15 years, the TTP has violently resisted the Pakistani government’s operations against al-Qaida and against armed insurgents from Afghanistan. Pakistani officials believe that the Afghan Taliban and the TTP have close ties and that most of the TTP’s leadership is based in Afghanistan, an accusation that Kabul has consistently denied.
Pakistan recently learned of a plot by the TTP to launch an offensive this spring against the Pakistani security forces. During a high-level Pakistani delegation visit to Kabul on Wednesday, Pakistani officials asked Afghanistan to take preemptive action against the TTP.
The visit, led by Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, took place amid strained diplomatic relations and recent border skirmishes between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Pakistani delegation included Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence Nadeem Ahmed Anjum, Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq, and Ambassador to Afghanistan Ubaid Ur Rehman Nizamani.
The delegation met with senior Afghan leadership, including Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, and Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
The Afghan leadership has been told that if any terror incident happens in Pakistan and Afghan soil is being used against us, Pakistan will target TTP hideouts in Afghanistan. According to international law, Pakistan reserves the right to take such actions to safeguard its people and its sovereignty as well.
According to a statement issued by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the group discussed “the growing threat of terrorism in the region,” with a focus on the TTP and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) group, and agreed to work together to curb the rise of terrorism.
An Islamabad-based senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Media Line that the officials from Pakistan had clearly expressed their objection to the presence of Pakistani terrorist groups in Afghanistan.
“The Afghan leadership has been told that if any terror incident happens in Pakistan and Afghan soil is being used against us, Pakistan will target TTP hideouts in Afghanistan. According to international law, Pakistan reserves the right to take such actions to safeguard its people and its sovereignty as well,” the official said.
The official said that the Pakistani delegation presented the Afghan Taliban’s top leadership with irrefutable evidence of the terrorist groups’ presence on Afghan soil and urged Afghanistan to take action.
Following the delegation’s visit, the key border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan at Torkham in Pakistan’s Khyber District reopened on Saturday for commercial use. Afghanistan had closed the border crossing the previous Sunday due to an immigration dispute with Pakistan. Gunfire was exchanged across the border the day after the border’s closing.
“The visit had nothing to do with the Torkham border issues, but the Afghan authorities tried to use leverage and closed the Torkham border, talking trade and business-related issues, what the Minister of Commerce does, not the Minister of Defense or intelligence chief,” the Pakistani official said.
Mohammed Suhail Shaheen, head of the Taliban’s Political Office in Doha, told The Media Line that he expects a decrease in tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Afghanistan and Pakistan are two neighboring Muslim countries. They have countless shared values. Now the opportunity has cropped up for both sides to focus on trade and betterment of life standards of their people,” Shaheen said.
Many experts are less optimistic about the future of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations.
The Media Line spoke with Asif Ali Khan Durrani, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Iran and to the United Arab Emirates, about the deteriorating dynamics between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Durrani is currently a senior research fellow at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan national security think tank associated with the Pakistani government.
He told The Media Line that the Taliban has failed to effectively prevent or respond to international terrorism.
He cited the 2022 killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri by a US drone strike in Kabul, which would not have taken place had the Taliban fulfilled their commitment not to allow al-Qaida members to take refuge in Afghanistan.
“Despite some positive commitments by the Pakistani establishment to maintain viable relations with the Taliban, ideological differences between the two countries have created a formidable barrier to strengthening ties,” Durrani said.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are two neighboring Muslim countries. They have countless shared values. Now the opportunity has cropped up for both sides to focus on trade and betterment of life standards of their people.
The countries’ relationship to TTP is the clearest example of the ideological difference between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Durrani said. Despite attempts to convince Afghanistan to take action against the TTP, the Afghan Taliban sees the TTP as an ideological ally and refuses to curb the group’s presence in any meaningful way. Meanwhile, “Pakistan will be reluctant to make concessions to the TTP when the TTP has targeted law enforcement officials,” Durrani explained.
Despite the countries’ inability to see eye to eye, Durrani insisted that “a working relationship is the only viable way to establish bilateral relations with the Taliban.”
Former Afghan Ambassador to the United Kingdom Ahmad Wali Massoud stressed the importance of historical context in understanding the troubled relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Afghanistan and Pakistan relations have been strained and have never been established on mutual understandings,” Massoud told The Media Line. “Successive ruling governments in both countries have been trying to use these strained relations to safeguard their own power.”
“For the past decades, whenever the relationship between the two countries deteriorated, both countries suffered deeply. Unfortunately, now there are no prospects for repairing these damaged relations in the future,” he said.
Both countries have much to lose if the relations between the two continue to deteriorate, according to Andy Vermaut, a Brussels-based counterextremism expert and president of the World Council for Public Diplomacy and Community Dialogue.
“Pakistan and Afghanistan rely heavily on their relationship. Pakistan regards Afghanistan as a vital route to Central Asia,” Vermaut told The Media Line. “Meanwhile, Afghanistan needs Pakistan to reach the hot waters of the Arabian Sea and create a commercial relationship with India. And because of the presence of millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and cross-border security concerns, it is critical for both countries to maintain positive ties.”
A further breakdown in the relationship between the two countries, Vermaut said, might jeopardize the stability of the entire region.
