Dr. Naveed Elahi
Over the past two years Pakistan has frequently asked the Afghan Taliban government to bridle the TTP terrorists operating against Pakistan from Afghanistan. Pakistan has continually conveyed its serious concerns that hundreds of Pakistani citizens and security forces’ personnel have perished in forays by the Afghan backed TTP terrorists. Sadly, all jeremiads have fallen on the deaf ears of the Afghan Taliban government. To add insult to the injury, the Afghan Taliban publicly reject the claims made by Pakistan, deny the presence of TTP on Afghan soil and mock Pakistan on failing to manage its security situation. They trivialize the matter and tantalize Pakistan which has enraged the latter. Afghan Taliban, with their tongue in cheek, ask for evidence to support the claim of TTP presence in Afghanistan.
Why do Afghan Taliban behave in this naive manner? Why do they ignore the deaths of Pakistani citizens, civilians, and security forces at the hands of TTP militants? Why they chose to tease Pakistan instead of pacifying it? There can be multiple reasons for this petulant behaviour. One, it smacks of grudge and grouse Zabhiullah and his group harbour against Pakistan for siding with the US in its war on terror. Second, they want to protect and appease the TTP elements who had fought along with them against the invading forces during the Karzai-Ghani regimes and provided them shelter and recruits too. Third, there is a possibility they want to pressurize Pakistan to get concessions at Pak-Afghan borders and for their illegal refugees in Pakistan.
The Afghan Taliban groups, especially their revengeful foot-soldiers, nurse the grudge and intend to bleed Pakistan through TTP and where possible through the terrorist group Islamic State (IS). Nevertheless, they conveniently forget that all along, despite tremendous international pressure, Pakistan had extended shelter and support to their leadership during the US war against them. The notorious ‘Quetta Shura,’ comprising Mullah Omer and other senior Taliban leaders, was a stigma for Pakistan in those days. The US and its puppet Karzai-Ghani governments blamed Pakistan for supporting these Afghan insurgents. In 2017, the US president Donald Trump in an address at Fort Mayer said, “We can no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organizations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond. He threatened, “Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan. It has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists.” Pakistan faced and endured this pressure. Without Pakistan’s support Afghan Taliban ragtag force and its leaders would have been annihilated within a year.
After the Afghan Taliban came into power Pakistan expected them to bridle the TTP. This did not happen. Conversely, it worsened. The Afghan Taliban freed thousands of TTP prisoners from Afghan jails. Consequently, terrorist attacks within Pakistan grew, and 2023 was among the bloodiest years in recent Pakistani history, with more than 650 attacks across the country, killing nearly 1,000 people, mostly from law enforcement agencies and the military. Most of the attacks on security personnel were claimed by TTP, along with other relatively lesser-known armed groups.
There are undeniable facts that TTP is using Afghanistan as a base for launching attacks in Pakistan, exploiting the environment created by the Taliban’s control. In a recent weekly press briefing the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Zahra Baloch disclosed that Pakistan has repeatedly presented evidence of activities conducted by terror outfits based in Afghanistan. Moreover, the activities and statements offer irrefutable circumstantial evidence of the TTP’s presence in Afghanistan and the Afghan Taliban government’s support for them.
The history of Pakistan’s talks with TTP leadership in Kabul, from 2020 onwards, proves beyond a grain of doubt that TTP is based in Afghanistan and is under influence of Afghan Taliban Government. In 2021, a reconciliation process with the TTP was initiated with the help of the Afghan Taliban. Top ten people from the TTP, including Khalid Khorasani, partook in talks with the military, tribal leadership, parliamentarians, and religious scholars of Pakistan under the patronage of Mufti Taqi Usmani of Karachi.
Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, then head of the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), to Kabul to meet the newly installed Afghan Taliban government, calling on them to either bridle TTP or evict them. The Afghan Taliban, however, offered Pakistan to mediate in talks with the TTP’s leadership.
On September 30, 2021, the then Prime Minister Imran Khan had said the government was in talks with some groups of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), seeking a reconciliation. In an interview to TRT he stated that the talks were taking place in Afghanistan, under the aegis of newly installed Afghan Taliban Government.
On 29-30 May 2022, the next round of talks was held in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Taliban government played the role of mediator. A delegation led by ISI Chief General Faiz Hameed held talks with TTP.
On June 2, 2022, TTP announced an “indefinite ceasefire”, in view of the “substantial progress” made in talks with the government during a round of meetings in Kabul. The announcement, made by TTP spokesperson Mohammad Khorasani, came a day after a 50-member Pakistani tribal jirga — including a federal minister, representatives from the KP government and tribal elders — joined the peace talks. “There had been substantial progress in talks over the past two days. As a result, the TTP leadership has announced an indefinite ceasefire,” the TTP spokesperson said.He said talks would continue in days to come to push the dialogue process.
On 31 July 2022, a 12-member Pashtun jirga wrapped up another round of talks with leaders of the outlawed TTP in Kabul, in a bid to resolve issues regarding the merger of tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and modalities for the return of the group’s members. Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, who led the tribal elders, dispelled the impression of a deadlock in the talks and told the media that the three-day talks were held in a “conducive environment” in which both sides addressed each other’s reservations. “We had interactions with the TTP and the officials of the Islamic Emirate. We met the TTP separately and also together with the officials of the Islamic Emirate,” he said.
On 4 September 2022, the TTP spokesperson announced an end to the indefinite ceasefire, claiming that Pakistani government made no efforts to make the negotiations successful. Another round of talks occurred in late 2022.
In May 2023, in response to Pakistan’s concerns, the Taliban government in Afghanistan announced a plan to relocate Pakistani refugees, including alleged TTP members, from border provinces to more remote areas within Afghanistan. This move was intended to limit these groups’ access to the border and reduce the incidence of cross-border attacks. Zabhiullah Mujahid is on record to have said, “The Islamic Emirate plans to relocate them to far-flung provinces (in Afghanistan) to ensure they don’t have access to the (border) lines nor are they involved in attacks or any other acts of violence that happen in Pakistan.” They indirectly demanded money from Pakistan to meet the expenditures of this relocation.
In July 2024, the United Nations reported a resurgence of the TTP, the largest militant group in Afghanistan, where they were being sheltered and supported by the Afghan Taliban, as well as some factions of Al Qaeda. The international community, including the UN, expressed concern over Afghanistan potentially becoming a sanctuary for terrorists under Taliban rule, which posed serious risks to regional stability, especially for neighboring countries such as Pakistan.
As mentioned in the UN report, Al-Qaeda has also reestablished its presence in Afghanistan, using the Taliban’s rule to attract recruits and funding. The group remains active in the southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan and continues to support the Taliban, though their operations have been limited to advising and supporting rather than direct engagement. Its main leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan on July 31, 2022. This situation poses a significant security threat to Pakistan, especially given the historical ties between the TTP, Al-Qaeda, and the Afghan Taliban.
In March 2024, when Pakistan retaliated and its Airforce targeted the hideouts of TTP in Afghanistan, Zabiullah Mujahid, after usual denial of TTP presence in Afghanistan conceded that parts of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan were hard to control. He said, “In this regard, we have made our utmost effort and continue to do so; but one thing we must accept is that Afghanistan shares a very long border area with Pakistan, and there are places with rugged terrain including mountains and forests, and places that might be out of our control.”
Pakistan Foreign Office responded in its latest response that certain elements among those in power in Afghanistan were actively patronising TTP and using them as a proxy against Pakistan. Such an approach against a brotherly country, which stood with the people of Afghanistan through thick and thin, manifests shortsightedness. It ignores the support extended by Pakistan to the people of Afghanistan over the last several decades. We urge these elements in power to rethink the policy of siding with Khwarij terrorists shedding the blood of innocent Pakistanis and to make a clear choice to stand with the people of Pakistan.
The other aspect that can be produced as irrefutable evidence of TTP presence in Kabul is the killings of TTP leaders in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces of Afghanistan. On January 13, 2022, TTP confirmed the killing of its former spokesperson Khalid Balti, alias Mohammad Khorasani, in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province. Radio Free Europe reported that Balti was a TTP commander and served as the group’s spokesperson from 2011 to 2015, when he was arrested in Afghanistan. He was freed after the Afghan Taliban seized power in mid-August. Since then, he had lived in the Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, where most of the Pakistani Taliban are believed to be hiding.
Antonio Giustozzi believes that the Afghan Taliban were unwilling to exert more than moderate pressure on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as TTP’s thousands of fighters could destabilize eastern Afghanistan if they allied with IS-K. This view at least corroborates the UN report’s claim that TTP is the largest terrorist group in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the Afghan Taliban’s justification for inaction against TTP is essentially an excuse that doesn’t hold water. They have taken decisive action against IS-K, as well as Uighur and Uzbek jihadist elements, forcing them to relocate. They could do the same with TTP if they chose to.
Obviously, despite all this unmistakable evidence of the presence and patronage of TTP in Afghanistan, Afghan Taliban’s obstinacy to deny these facts and unabashed refusal to control them, is not without repercussions. Pakistan’s Caretaker Government decided to expel 1.7 million undocumented Afghan citizen living in Pakistan. Already, 327,000 Afghan refugees have been sent back to Afghanistan. Afghanistan is the major export destination for Pakistan. Also, Afghans depend on Pakistan for transit trade. Pakistan has also tightened the rules for transit trade, imposed stringent bank guarantee requirements on Afghan traders for imports, expanded a list of goods Afghanistan cannot import via Pakistan and has imposed a 10 percent duty on selected commodities imported by Afghanistan.
The situation has deteriorated further with skirmishes erupting on the Pak-Afghan border between the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan’s border forces in the first week of September 2024. Several Afghan Taliban fighters have been killed, and two tanks have been destroyed so far. Pakistan remains resolute in responding to the Afghan Taliban’s belligerence in the same coin. It is crucial to halt these border clashes immediately. Peace and stability in relations can only be achieved if the Afghan Taliban cease their support and protection of the outlawed terrorist group, TTP, which operates from within Afghanistan and is the biggest threat to the security and stability of Pakistan
The author is the Chief Editor of The Strategic Brief.
