Mumtaz Hussain
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan’s acting permanent representative to the United Nations Ambassador Usman Jadoon has warned that the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan was actively operating in Afghanistan and could become another Al Qaeda to destabilize the whole region.
Speaking at the UN Security Council, Ambassador Jadoon said, “Terrorism within and from Afghanistan poses the single most serious threat to the country, to the region, and to the world.”
He highlighted the threats from terrorist groups especially the TTP operating from Afghanistan not only to the neighboring countries especially Pakistan but also to the whole region and beyond.
Ambassador Jadoon said that the TPP with its over 6,000 fighters was the largest listed terrorist organization with safe havens in Afghanistan close to the long and porous border with Pakistan. This terror group it poses a direct and daily threat to Pakistan’s security.
He said that Pakistan had concrete evidence of TTP’s collaboration with other terrorist groups such as Majeed Brigade utilizing terrorism to disrupt Pakistan’s economic cooperation with China, especially CPEC.
“Given its long association with al-Qaeda, the TTP could emerge as Al-Qaeda’s arm with a regional and global terrorist agenda.”
He said the international community also expected that the interim government in Kabul fulfills its declared commitments on human rights and political inclusion.
However, the interim Afghan government intensified the restrictions on women and girls. These restrictions are contrary to Islamic precepts, jurisprudence and the Sharia, he added.
Referring to the Doha process framework, the ambassador said that it should not remain limited to counter-narcotics and private sector rather should also cover Afghanistan’s challenges of terrorism, human rights and widespread poverty.
“he international community is obliged to help the 23.7 million Afghans who need urgent aid and to take adequate measures to bolster Afghanistan’s economy — including reviving the national banking system and restoring commercial activity. “
Pakistan, Ambassador Jadoon said, enjoys close bonds of ethnicity, history, faith, language and culture with Afghanistan.
