Pakistan’s top diplomat on Afghanistan issues claimed on Wednesday that his country has documented a 500-percent increase in suicide terrorist attacks, blaming the Taliban’s lenient attitudes towards terrorist activity within its territory.
The primary culprit that Pakistani Special Representative on Afghanistan, Ambassador Asif Durrani, blamed for the attacks is Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a jihadist terrorist organization commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban. It is a separate organization from the Afghan Taliban, which has served as the undisputed government of Afghanistan since 2021 as a result of President Joe Biden’s disastrous decision to extend the 20-year-old Afghan War beyond the agreed-upon May 1 deadline.
“After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived,” Durrani said on Wednesday, according to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn. Durrani was speaking at a conference titled “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape,” which focused heavily on the impact of the Taliban’s return to power on its neighbor.
“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious concern for Pakistan,” Durrani said. “Another worrying aspect is the participation of Afghan nationals in these attacks.”
In addition to the 500-percent increase in suicide attacks, Durrani said that attacks specifically attributed to TTP on the Pakistani-Afghan border had increased by 65 percent since August 2021.
Durrani nonetheless suggested that a positive relationship with the Taliban was possible. He described Afghanistan as an “avoidable irritant” to national security, which can be solved with “deft diplomacy,” in contrast to the decades-long tensions with neighboring India.
A major obstacle to anti-terror cooperation with Afghanistan is that the Taliban is a terrorist group itself and maintains close ties to a number of similar jihadist organizations. The Afghan Taliban also enthusiastically denies any relationship with any terrorist group – or the presence of any terrorists in Afghanistan – when challenged. Afghan Taliban leaders, who call themselves the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” have insisted for years that they do not support any terrorist organizations around the world – a claim refuted by mountains of evidence documented by the United Nations, neighboring countries, and human rights groups.
Paramount among the evidence of support for TTP terrorists is the documented presence of advanced American weapons in the hands of Pakistani Taliban terrorists and other threats to Pakistan, such as the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). A report published in February 2023 by the American Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found that Biden’s extension and abrupt end to the Afghan War in 2021 resulted in American troops abandoning $7.2 billion worth of military equipment to the Taliban. Taliban terrorists have repeatedly orchestrated celebratory parades showing off the American taxpayer-funded equipment they now possess, including armored vehicles, advanced communications technology, missiles, and ammunition.
In addition to TTP, the Taliban has presided over the proliferation of al-Qaeda throughout Afghanistan and the emergence of the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), the Afghan wing of ISIS, as the group’s most dangerous and prolific international arm.
The Afghan Taliban’s friendly relationship with al-Qaeda was the impetus for the American invasion of Afghanistan that originally toppled the Taliban dictatorship following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States homeland.
Pakistan’s relationship with the Afghan Taliban deteriorated significantly in October when Islamabad announced that it would proceed with the deportation of nearly 2 million Afghans present in the country illegally. Pakistani Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti noted at the time that Pakistani police had identified Afghans involved in 14 of the 24 suicide bombings carried out against Pakistan between January and October 2023. Afghans were given a month to return home before deportations began in earnest in November.
Taliban fighters stand guard as Afghan refugees line up to register in a camp near the Torkham Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. A huge number of Afghans refugees entered the Torkham border to return home hours before the expiration of a Pakistani government deadline for those who are in the country illegally to leave or face deportation. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
“The behavior of Pakistan towards Afghan refugees is unacceptable,” top Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denounced at the time. “The Pakistani side should reconsider its plan. Afghan refugees are not involved in Pakistan’s security problems. As long as they leave Pakistan voluntarily, that country should tolerate them.”
More recently, in March, Pakistan announced that it had engaged in “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations” – airstrikes – in Afghan territory, targeting a group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban.
“Pakistan has great respect for the people of Afghanistan. However, certain elements among those in power in Afghanistan are actively patronising TTP and using them as a proxy against Pakistan,” the Foreign Office of the government of Pakistan said in a statement on the strikes. “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.”
The Taliban responded to the operation by claiming that it engaged in its own bombing of Pakistan shortly thereafter.