NEW YORK: A United Nations monitoring report has categorically stated that proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an alliance of extremist groups, is the largest terrorist group operating in Afghanistan and receives increasing support from that country’s Taliban rulers to conduct cross-border attacks in Pakistan.
The UN team, monitoring the terrorist groups TTP, Daesh and Al-Qaeda, submitted its 15th report to the UN Security Council. The UN team further stated that the banned TTP is continuously using Afghan soil for terrorist operations against Pakistan.
The United Nations report also revealed that the proscribed TTP is now getting operational and logistical support from terrorist networks. The report further revealed that there are around 6,000 to 6,500 fighters of the terrorist group TTP in Afghanistan.
These fighters are completely free to carry out their activities with the support of the Afghan Taliban.
“Further, the Taliban have proved unable or unwilling to manage the threat from TTP, whose attacks into Pakistan have intensified,” the report stated. “Taliban support to TTP also appears to have increased.”
UN member states reiterated that NATO “caliber weapons, especially night vision capability, that have been provided to TTP since the Taliban takeover add lethality to TTP terrorist attacks against Pakistani military border posts.”
TTP has gradually intensified the number of attacks against Pakistan from 573 in 2021 to 1,203 in 2023, with the trend continuing into 2024, according to the UN report. Pakistani officials also attribute the spike in violence to the “greater operational freedom” the terror outfit has enjoyed in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power almost three years ago.
The Taliban’s spy agency, the General Directorate of Intelligence, facilitated three new guest houses in Kabul for TTP leaders and reportedly issued passes to senior TTP figures to facilitate ease of movement and immunity from arrest, as well as weapons permits, according to the UN report.
