PESHAWAR: Pakistan has decided to address the issue of Afghan nationals’ involvement in the increasing extortion cases in Pakistan, a senior official stated on Tuesday. This comes as Islamabad intensifies its efforts to protect its citizens from cross-border threats.
Authorities have repeatedly asserted that Afghan citizens have been engaged in acts of terrorism, extortion, and other unlawful activities within Pakistan, urging the neighboring country to take action against such elements.
During a press conference held in the provincial capital of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which shares a 2,400-kilometer-long border with Afghanistan, DIG Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Imran Shahid, announced that Pakistan has decided to raise the issue of Afghan citizens’ participation in extortion with the interim Taliban government in Kabul.
The senior official noted that authorities have apprehended two extortionists linked to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Pakistan claims has established safe havens in Afghanistan. “Zaman Faiz and Saeedullah, both Afghan citizens, were apprehended in Lahore, and their mobile phones have been confiscated,” he revealed.
These extortionists targeted businessmen, politicians, and other individuals who refrained from reporting to local authorities due to fear. “The arrested individuals were operating in the Mohmand district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with 71 other accomplices. This network even contacted politicians, including a senator and a member of the provincial assembly, demanding extortion money.”
TTP Involvement in Extortion
The CTD official disclosed that the arrested TTP members had also created ten WhatsApp groups related to extortion. The banned TTP suffered significant losses during military operations in 2014, following a brazen attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar that claimed the lives of nearly 150 individuals, mostly students.
The TTP members largely fled to Afghanistan, where they were pursued by US-led forces. However, with Afghanistan now under Taliban control, Pakistan contends that it has become a “safe haven” for TTP terrorists involved in attacks on military personnel.
