According to a recent UN report on terrorist activities, Afghanistan, which is administered by the Taliban, continues to serve as a haven for a conglomerate of extraordinarily dangerous militant groups. If Pakistan and the wider region do not take strong measures to counter these dangers, the consequences might be dire. The former terrorist organisation has created a number of training camps in Afghanistan, including in districts bordering Pakistan, where TTP suicide bombers receive instruction, according to the Security Council’s 33rd monitoring report on Al Qaeda and IS. Furthermore, the paper claims that the TTP’s cross-border militant strike in Chitral last September was made possible in part by Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, which supplied fighters for the deadly incursion. According to the UN report, the Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan, an obscure organisation that surfaced last year and was implicated in multiple violent attacks within this nation, is purportedly a TTP front established to give the Pakistani Taliban “plausible deniability” and that the Afghan Taliban are “generally sympathetic” to the outlawed TTP. The probable connection between the TTP and IS-K and the Majeed Brigade, a militant group from Balochistan, is another worrying discovery. The state’s claim that anti-Pakistan terrorists are seeking sanctuary in Afghanistan and that the Taliban is not taking appropriate action to address the issue is supported by the UN report. According to the memo, Kabul’s de facto rulers did take certain actions “to alleviate Pakistani pressure,” such as locking up certain TTP cadres and relocating others away from the Pakistani border. However, it is evident that these actions have not been sufficient to stop the militant trend. Given the existence of other violent groups, including the sectarian IS-K and anti-Chinese outfits, Pakistan ought to collaborate with neighbouring powers like China, Iran, and the Central Asian nations to exert pressure on the Kabul leadership to tackle this potentially explosive issue. Pakistan and Afghanistan must maintain their bilateral efforts. Unchecked, Afghanistan’s militant issue has the potential to resurface as a global security challenge. All of the regional capitals should be sending the same message: the Taliban need to close their terrorist havens if they want international collaboration, increased recognition, and foreign investment. According to Pakistan, the possible connection between Islamist organisations and Baloch rebels, which some observers have already brought to light, would make things more difficult in Balochistan and necessitate a strong counterterrorism strategy from the incoming government.
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