After many in Pakistan expressed their happiness in the Taliban victory in Afghanistan in August last year, euphoria now subsided in facing an increase in terrorism at home while the Pakistani authorities continued to provide support and protection to the Taliban regime, said a report on Thursday.
The Pakistani government hopes that the friendly regime in Afghanistan will alleviate its concerns about Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). What has happened as a surge in a series of terror in the past few months, said a think tank based in Canada, International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS)
Pakistan claims that many terror attacks are planned by militants hiding in Afghanistan. So, while Pakistan wants to help the new Taliban government, it must also compete with the increasing security and economic risk of Pakistan that has emerged with the arrival of the Taliban regime, the next report said.
Citing data on the Peace Study Institute (PIPS), the report noted that the terror incident in Pakistan increased by 42 percent of the previous year by 2021, with a significant surge in the number of incidents after the takeover of the Taliban Kabul in August.
The PIPS report also continued by saying that changes in Afghanistan “did not help in whatever way Pakistan’s efforts to deal with militant groups that threaten their security.”
In addition, TTP, which was far weaker at the end of 2020, has regrouped and was involved in running extortion racquarts throughout Pakistan. TTP has used a Afghan SIM card to call a prosperous Pakistani trader to get extortion money.
According to Pips, TTP only contributed 87 attacks that killed 158 people, an increase of 84 percent relative to 2020.
The IFFRAS report further said that the latest link between TTP and the Afghan Taliban raises other security challenges for Pakistan as a low-level Afghan Taliban cadre is said to maintain their relationship with TTP, the fact recognized by the Senior Leadership of the Afghan Taliban.
The bigger challenge for Pakistan is that the Afghan Taliban ruled in Kabul. As long as the Taliban is the power on the ground and, contrary to the Afghan government, Pakistan is able to control its cadres. It even gave Haqqanis, Pakistan’s favorite position of fill in the Taliban hierarchy.
At present, with the Taliban in the power the situation has changed and the recent events on the border relating to the Durand line fence show differences in position.
The Afghan Taliban was angry by the fence of Islamabad founded along the border of 2,700 kilometers (1,600 miles), known as the Durand line. The Taliban did not recognize the Durand line as a border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Another headache for Pakistani security establishment is a weapons market that develops along the Afghanistan-Pakistani border and terrorist / rebel groups who buy weapons left by the US and its allies.
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