The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) continues to be a thorn in relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan despite a recent positive trip of Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar to Kabul, according to remarks by veteran diplomat Mohammad Sadiq on Tuesday.
The increased activity of armed groups within Pakistan since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 remains a common source of tensions between the two neighbours. Pakistan maintains that these armed groups operate from within Afghan soil, a claim that Afghan officials have denied, maintaining that no one can use Afghan soil against any country.
Last month, FM Dar had said Pakistan and Afghanistan had assured each other that they would not allow nefarious elements to use their soil to conduct attacks or illicit activities against the other, adding that both countries would be responsible for taking appropriate action in such a case.
Dar’s interactions with the Afghan Taliban leadership were quite cordial, with promises from both sides to improve ties and address the irritants standing in the way of better relations.
However, Ambassador Sadiq, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, said while speaking at a seminar titled “Pak-Afghan Relations under the Shadow of Terrorism”, organised by the Institute of Regional Studies, that the “Afghan Taliban government could not resolve Pakistan’s concerns regarding outlawed TTP till now.”
He added: “It seems that there is a difference of opinion in Afghanistan on this issue.”
Sadiq said the TTP was a challenge. “It is not just a challenge for Pakistan. TTP is damaging Pak-Afghan relations. Many people in Afghanistan are aware of this fact,” he added.
“There was a time when we could have solved the TTP problem after Zarb-i-Azb,” Sadiq said, referring to the major operation conducted against the TTP, other Pakistani and foreign militant groups in North Waziristan in June 2014.
“At that time, some went across the border [into Afghanistan], some turned into sleeper cells here in Pakistan.”
He said the issue of the TTP could have been discussed in the Doha peace talks between the United States and the Afghan Taliban, but it was not addressed at the time.
“The Afghan Taliban are in control of every place in Afghan cities, villages and towns, but it seems they are not tired of the war yet.
“There are different opinions among different classes and regions in Afghanistan. The TTP participated in the Afghan Taliban’s war against the United States. This included supplying suicide bombers with all kinds of assistance. The Afghan interim government says that it is afraid that if it takes action against the TTP, they will join IS (Islamic State),” Sadiq said.
The ambassador said there were examples of suicide bombers being trained in camps and then sold to another group.
“Members of the Afghan Taliban also join the TTP, IS and other groups,” he said.
He recalled that the government of Ashraf Ghani in 2019 had declared TTP as a threat to Afghanistan in the country’s first National Security Police and had arrested a number of TTP commanders.
“Afghanistan had at that time reached the conclusion that the TTP is a threat to its security.”
