Khaama: On Wednesday, the Tehrik –e- Taliban Pakistan (TTP) issued a warning explicitly to the leaders of the two major political parties in the ruling coalition, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan people party (PPT). The two leaders of the leading parties, Prime Minister Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, have committed the support of their parties in the war against TTP in the country. Click here to read more (external link).
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Khawaja Muhammad Asif
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 3, 2023
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif says a new wave of terrorist attacks in his country is originating in Afghanistan and he has urged that nation’s Taliban rulers to stop it in line with their counterterrorism pledges.
Asif’s assertions come as a spate of terrorist attacks in Pakistan has killed hundreds of people, mostly security forces, in recent months. An outlawed alliance of militant groups, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility for much of the violence.
“They are coming from across the Afghan side of the border to carry out these activities. They may have sleeper cells here [in Pakistan], but their overwhelming presence is on Afghanistan’s soil,” Asif told the local Geo news TV channel late Monday.
He spoke after attending an hours-long meeting of the National Security Committee, the country’s highest security-related forum comprising political and military leadership, which reviewed the rise in terrorist attacks. It issued a subtle warning to the Afghan Taliban.
“The forum concluded that no country will be allowed to provide sanctuaries and facilitation to terrorists and Pakistan reserves all rights in that respect to safeguard her people,” said a post-meeting statement without naming Afghanistan.
Asif recounted that the Taliban pledged in a February 2020 deal signed with the United States in Doha, Qatar, they would not allow the use of Afghan soil for terrorism against any country.
“We have been requesting the Taliban ever since they returned to power to stop the TTP from plotting terrorist activities in Pakistan,” Asif noted.
“This is your obligation under the Doha agreement and this is also Kabul’s obligation or duty towards our brotherly, neighborly relations,” the minister said. “We hope that they will rein in and control this new wave of terrorism against Pakistan, which is stemming from their territory.”
A spokesman for the Taliban administration Tuesday responded to Islamabad’s assertions, calling them “false” and “regrettable.”
Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that Afghanistan wants peaceful relations with all its neighbors, including Pakistan, to promote internal as well as regional peace and stability.
“The Islamic Emirate is trying its best to ensure that the territory of Afghanistan is not used against Pakistan or any other country,” Mujahid said, using the official title for the Taliban government, which has yet to be recognized by the world.
“We are committed to this goal, but the Pakistani side also has a responsibility to resolve the situation, avoid baseless talks and provocative ideas, because such talks and mistrust are not in the interest of any side,” Mujahid said.
The TTP, designated as a global terrorist organization, is a Pakistani offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban.
After its emergence in Pakistan’s volatile border regions in 2007, the group sheltered and provided personnel for the Islamist Taliban insurgency against the United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The Taliban reclaimed power in Kabul in August 2021 as the then-Afghan government and its security forces collapsed and all U.S.-led troops withdrew from the country after 20 years of involvement in war.
TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud and his commanders have long taken shelter in Afghanistan after fleeing counterterrorism military operations in Pakistan. But Pakistani officials maintain the militants have been roaming freely in Kabul and operating with greater freedom out of their Afghan bases since the Taliban takeover.
Mehsud routinely issues media statements through his spokesman, directing TTP cross-border deployments and praising terrorist attacks.
The violence claimed by or blamed on the TTP and other militant groups killed almost 1,000 Pakistanis, including nearly 300 security forces, in some 376 terrorist attacks in 2022.
The Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies, a nongovernmental organization, documented the details in its annual report, noting that most of the attacks have occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces, both lining Pakistan’s nearly 2,600-kilometer border with Afghanistan.
The report said that more than 40 security forces were killed in December alone, making it the deadliest month in a decade of terrorist violence in Pakistan.
8am: Local sources told Hasht-e Subh on Tuesday, January 3 that Majid Ahmadi, who had criticized the Taliban on his Facebook page for their decision to ban university education for women, was arrested by Taliban forces. Taliban members arrested the young man four days ago in Firuzkoh, the capital city of Ghor province, according to sources. Sourced reiterated there are no details about his whereabouts and whether he is alive or dead. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: Local sources in Sar-e-Pul province inform about the granting of more than 80 acres of inhabitants’ agricultural land by the Taliban to the tribes native in Maidan Wardak province. Non-Pashtun ethnic groups in general live in the northern parts of the country. Uzbek and Tajik communities live in Sar-e-Pul province, especially in center of the province. Click here to read more (external link).
By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
January 2, 2023
The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has accused Islamabad of endangering bilateral relations after Pakistani Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah suggested last week that Kabul wasn’t doing enough to counter the activities of the militant Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group.
The Taliban’s Defense Ministry in Kabul issued a statement on January 1 saying the TTP’s hideouts are inside Pakistan, not Afghanistan.
It said that “such claims by Pakistani officials harm relations” and any issues can be “resolved through understanding.”
Continuing the war of words, Pakistani leaders on January 2 stated that no country will be allowed to shield militants who conduct attacks inside the country, without specifically mentioning Afghanistan, AP reported.
Pakistan’s National Security Committee vowed “zero tolerance for terrorism in Pakistan” and said extremists will be dealt with using the “full force of the state.”
The Taliban-led Afghan government that took over after the U.S.-led withdrawal of international troops and the UN-backed Afghan government’s collapse in mid-2021 is not officially recognized by any country.
But it hosted the talks between Pakistani officials and TTP representatives that resulted in an abortive cease-fire last year.
Pakistan regards the TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, as a terrorist group.
Sanaullah suggested to local media that Islamabad could be forced to take unilateral action against the TTP inside Afghanistan.
The TTP walked away from a monthslong truce with Islamabad in November, saying the Pakistani Army had failed to fulfill unspecified pledges.
Pakistan blames the TTP for at least 250 attacks that killed more than 400 people in Pakistan between August 2021 and August 2022.
With reporting by AP
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Tolo News: The Joint Chamber of Afghanistan-Pakistan Commerce on Monday said that Islamabad has imposed new restrictions on the transit of Afghan commodities, creating hurdles in the way of traders to transfer their products via Karachi port. “The problem is in invoice. The Pakistani government has increased the invoice of commodities such as tires, electric devices, medicines, oil and sugar,” said Najibullah Safi, head of the Joint Chamber. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
January 2, 2023
ISLAMABAD — Islamic State said Monday its Afghanistan-based affiliate was behind Sunday’s suicide bomb attack outside the military airport in the country’s capital, Kabul.
The bombing was the third high-profile attack in the city in the last month claimed by the terror group’s regional branch, IS-Khorasan.
The morning blast at the airport’s entrance left several people dead and wounded, a Taliban-led Interior Ministry spokesperson said shortly after the attack. He shared no further details while Taliban forces prevented filming and photography at the crime scene.
Media reports quoted unnamed security sources as claiming the attack had killed at least eight Taliban forces and injured numerous others.
The militant group posted on Telegram that Sunday’s attack killed 20 people and wounded 30 others. Taliban officials dispute those figures, and the interior ministry said it would release an official death toll later.
IS-Khorasan claimed Monday that the attacker had participated and survived last month’s raid on a downtown Kabul hotel where Chinese nationals were staying, among other guests.
The December 12 attack killed or wounded several Taliban forces, while China confirmed five of its nationals had also suffered injuries. Beijing swiftly advised Chinese citizens and companies “to leave and evacuate the country as soon as possible.”
Taliban authorities claimed at the time that the three shooters involved in the hotel attack were killed in ensuing gunbattles with security forces. But IS later released a video of two men, claiming they assaulted the Chinese nationals.
IS-Khorasan also claimed a December 2 assassination attempt on Ubaid ur Rehman Nizamani, head of Pakistan’s embassy in the Afghan capital. Nizamani escaped unharmed in the shooting incident, but his Pakistani security guard was injured.
Last week, a car bomb in the northeastern Badakhshan border province killed the Taliban regional police chief and his two guards. IS-Khorasan took responsibility for plotting that attack in the provincial capital, Fayzabad.
Critics say the repeated attacks in Kabul and beyond raise questions about claims that Taliban security forces have degraded the presence of IS-Khorasan in Afghanistan.
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
January 1, 2023
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities say that several people were killed or injured in an explosion on the morning of January 1 at a military airport adjacent to Kabul International Airport.
The spokesman for Kabul’s security operations, Khalid Zadra, told RFE/RL that “a number of our compatriots were martyred or injured” in the suspected bomb blast and that an investigation into the incident had been launched. Zadra did not provide specific casualty figures.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor also said that several people had been killed or injured, without giving exact figures.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the country has been targeted by Islamic State-Khorasan, an offshoot of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
On December 27, IS claimed responsibility for an attack in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan Province that killed a key Taliban security official.
An armed anti-Taliban resistance movement known as the National Resistance Front has been active in the country’s north.
The military airport struck on January 1 lies about 200 meters from Kabul International Airport and is also close to the Interior Ministry compound. The Interior Ministry building was targeted in a suicide bombing in October in which at least four people were killed.
Other high-security government ministries, as well as foreign embassies and the presidential palace, are located along Airport Road, as is the military airport.
Reports indicated that the military airport was damaged but intact, and that Taliban security forces had cordoned off the area and were preventing photos or video from being taken of the site.
With reporting by AP and dpa