KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security, Kamchybek Tashiyev, warns that the concentrations of terrorists in northern Afghanistan pose a threat to the security of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states.
As reported by the Russian state news agency, TASS, Mr. Tashiyev, speaking at a CIS meeting in Bishkek on Friday, May 24, said that the growing number of terrorist groups in the northern provinces of Afghanistan threatens the southern borders of CIS.
He further emphasized that international terrorist organizations and their sponsors seek to exploit global social and political tensions “to solve their strategic tasks”.
Established in 1991 by Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is an intergovernmental organization in the Eurasian region. It was subsequently joined by nine other Central Asian countries.
The organization’s primary functions include coordinating its members’ policies on their economies, foreign relations, defense, immigration, environmental protection, and law enforcement.
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has heightened security concerns among regional countries due to the resurgence of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIS-K, TTP, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), and others. These groups pose a significant threat to regional stability.
Over the past nearly three years, regional countries have consistently expressed concerns about the presence and increasing capabilities of international terrorist groups, especially in the northern provinces of Afghanistan.
In a report Last year, the United Nations sanctions monitoring team revealed that the Taliban’s connections with al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations pose a significant terrorism threat to Afghanistan and its neighboring regions.
Afghanistan’s southern neighbor, Pakistan, accuses the Taliban of not doing enough to control the militant group Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which shares the same ideology. The TTP militants have escalated their attacks on Pakistani security forces in recent years.
In a press release on Wednesday, May 22, the Pakistan army stated that the country has experienced a rise in terrorist incidents originating from Afghanistan soil. The statement indicated that terrorists from Afghanistan are trying to infiltrate through the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to target Pakistani security forces and innocent civilians.
“In this context, in addition to other areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Security Forces are conducting operations in the general area Sambaza in Zhob District of Balochistan, since 21 April 24,” said the media wing of Pakistan army. “As a result of effective engagements, 29 terrorists have been successfully neutralized by the Security Forces in the past one month,” it added.
The regime in Afghanistan, however, has consistently denied the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan. The Taliban claims to have eradicated ISIS and asserts that Afghanistan’s territory poses no threat to any regional country.
