ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – Countries around Afghanistan who appeared more willing to work with the Taliban regime are growing concerns about terrorism threats emanating from the country. Last week, regional representatives who were in Kabul raised these concerns to the group.
The complaint focused on the perceived inability of the Kabul regime to effectively control the activities of different terrorist groups in Afghanistan. “The initiative for a joint protest originated from Pakistan, believing that a united front by key neighbors could influence the Afghan Taliban to address the issue,” according to Pakistani media, The Express Tribune. The media stated that Russia, China, and Iran were the other regional countries who shared the concerns.
The meeting in Kabul happened around the same time that a UN Security Council report showed that threats of terrorism are exponentially increasing in Afghanistan. According to the UN sanctions monitoring team, the Taliban have deepened their ties to international and regional terror groups, embedding them in their files and ranks.
However, according to the media, the Taliban cleverly convened a regional conference, inviting other countries to counteract the move. Representatives from India, Turkey, Indonesia, and certain Central Asian countries attended the conference.
On Monday, January 29, the Taliban Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the first regional conference titled “Afghanistan’s Regional Cooperation Initiative”, bringing together envoys and representatives from 11 regional countries to Kabul.
Although Islamabad was the key architect of the initiative, its special envoy, Asif Durani, was missing in the conference. However, as reported by The Express Tribune, his absence was due to illness. In his place, Pakistan’s charge d’affaires in Kabul participated in the meeting to express his country’s concerns about the use of Afghanistan soil by terrorist groups.
Pakistan has become increasingly vocal in recent months, as the relationship between the two long-time strategic allies begin to falter. The country believes that the regime in Kabul is harboring and supporting terrorist groups, such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as Pakistani Taliban. These groups engage in cross-border attacks, targeting Pakistani security forces and civilians.
According to the recent UN report, while the Afghan Taliban generally held a “sympathetic” view of the TTP, some members joined the anti-Pakistan terrorist outfit out of religious duty. “Besides supplying weapons and equipment, Taliban rank and file, al Qaeda core and AQIS fighters assisted the TTP forces in cross-border attacks,” the report noted.
The report further revealed that some Taliban members also joined the TTP, perceiving a religious obligation to provide support. Interlocutors the UN team spoke with, according to the report, reported that the TTP members and their families receive regular aid packages from the Taliban.
The report also noted that the relationship between the Taliban and al Qaeda remained close, and the latter maintained a holding pattern in Afghanistan under the Taliban patronage. “Regional states assess that the presence of al Qaeda’s senior figures in the country has not changed and that the group continues to pose a threat in the region, and potentially beyond.”
In response to the UN report, the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called it a propaganda. Mujahid said, “a regular program of accusing the IEA [Taliban] has been started from the address of the UN, which is always spreading propaganda.”
