PUBLISHED
February 23, 2025
ISLAMABAD:
In one of the recent interactions between Pakistani and Taliban officials, the presence of banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Afghan soil was on top of the agenda. When the Pakistani side confronted the Taliban officials with evidence of how the terrorist outfit was using the neighbouring country’s soil to launch attacks on Pakistan, they conceded that yes the TTP was a problem. However, the Taliban officials were of the opinion that the strategy being pursued by Pakistan was not going to resolve the issue.
The key factor, nevertheless, was admission by the Taliban controlled Afghanistan about the presence of TTP on their soil, even if it was in private. But despite this confession, the interim Taliban government continues to deny Pakistani allegations in public.
Instead, in recent times they have come up with their own narrative in an effort to counter Pakistan’s charges. The interim Taliban government alleged that Pakistan was backing ISIL-K (the ‘Khorasan’ chapter of the Islamic State) or Daesh as a proxy against Kabul. The Afghan ministry of defence put out a statement claiming that the transnational terrorist outfit had their training camps in Balochistan.
While publically, the Taliban government may remain in a state of denial on the presence of TTP in Afghanistan, a latest report prepared by independent experts for the United Nations Security Council answered two critical questions: (1) whether TTP was indeed operating from the Afghan soil and (2) was Pakistan using Daesh as proxy against the Taliban and had their training camps in Afghanistan?
The 35th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team pursuant to the several UNSC resolutions was submitted to the world body’s apex decision-making forum on February 6. The report covers the period from July 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024. The monitoring team submits such reports to the UNSC twice a year. The report sheds light on the threat of terrorist groups in different parts of the world. The 35th report had a full chapter on the current situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan. While the monitoring report previously did debunk Taliban’s claims about TTP and other terrorist outfits, the latest report was far more compelling.
The report noted that with over two dozen terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan, Member States assess the security threat emanating from the country as a continuing driver of instability in the region and beyond. Despite the loss of territory and attrition among senior and mid-tier leadership figures, the presence of terrorist organisations in Afghanistan posed a serious challenge to the stability of the country, as well as to the security of Central Asian and other neighbouring States, reads the report. One of the key conditions of the Doha deal Taliban had signed with the US was that the insurgent group would sever its ties with al-Qaida. But the monitoring team report suggests otherwise. “The status and strength of Al-Qaida in Afghanistan remained unchanged. The group sought to strengthen cooperation with regional terrorist organisations of non-Afghan origin that operate in the country (TTP, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), ETIM/TIP and Jamaat Ansarullah to expand its presence in neighbouring countries,” the report notes.
Member States judged Sayf al-Adl’s strategy to reorganise Al-Qaida’s presence in Afghanistan and reactivate sleeper cells in Iraq, Libya, the Syrian Arab Republic and Europe to be indicative of the group’s longer-term intent to carry out external operations. Abu Hassan al-Waili deployed Hyas Masi Ullah to Kunar Province to manage Al-Qaida finances from the Islamic Republic of Iran into Afghanistan.
In what is seen as a damning indictment against the Taliban, the report says the Taliban maintained a permissive environment allowing Al-Qaida to consolidate, with the presence of safe houses and training camps scattered across Afghanistan. The de facto authorities continued to be sensitive to the profile of Al-Qaida personnel in the country. Low-profile members resided with their families under the protection of the Taliban intelligence service (General Directorate of Intelligence) in Kabul neighbourhoods, while senior leaders were placed in rural areas outside Kabul (such as the distant village of Bulghuli in Sar-e Pul Province), Kunar, Ghazni, Logar and Wardak Provinces.
The status and strength of TTP in Afghanistan had not changed, according to the report. The ambition and scale of its attacks on Pakistan, though, had significantly increased, with over 600 attacks during the reporting period, including from Afghan territory. “The Taliban continued to provide TTP with logistical and operational space and S/2025/71/Rev.1 18/27 25-02529 financial support, with one Member State noting that the family of Noor Wali Masoud received a monthly payment of 3 million Afghanis (roughly $43,000),” the UN report reveals.
“The TTP established new training centres in Kunar, Nangarhar, Khost and Paktika (Barmal) Provinces while enhancing recruitment within TTP cadres, including from the Afghan Taliban,” it adds.
There was increased collaboration between TTP, the Afghan Taliban and Al- Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, conducting attacks under the banner of Tehrik-e Jihad Pakistan. Greater facilitation among these groups and TTP in terms of the provision of suicide bombers and fighters and ideological guidance might transform the latter into an extra-regional threat and an umbrella organisation for other terrorist groups operating in the region.
The Balochistan Liberation Army claimed that the Majeed Brigade carried out several high-casualty attacks in the reporting period. MB included women in its ranks and operated across the southern region of Pakistan, including Awaran, Panjgur and Dalbandin. Two Member States reported that MB maintained connections with TTP, ISIL-K and ETIM/TIP, including collaborating with the latter in its operational bases in Afghanistan.
Notwithstanding the measures taken by the Taliban to counter ISIL-K, the group represented the most serious threat to the de facto authorities, ethnic and religious minorities, the United Nations, foreign nationals and international representatives in Afghanistan. The sustained presence of ISIL-K and its activity in the country reflected the group’s ideological commitment to its own brand, portraying itself as advancing the wider Khorasan, its ability to leverage relationships with particular communities and the Taliban’s ineffective efforts to eliminate it. The killing of the acting Minister of Refugees and Repatriation, Khalil Ahmed Haqqani, in a suicide bombing on 11 December, claimed by ISIL-K, marked the highest-profile casualty within the de facto Cabinet since the Taliban takeover. It evidenced the deliberate attempt by ISIL-K to create a false sense of security by temporarily reducing the number of high-impact attacks inside Afghanistan to undermine the Taliban’s credibility in providing security. ISIL-K benefited from the Taliban’s inability to protect itself against infiltration and corruption among its own ranks, despite raids conducted to arrest disloyal officials. Following the attack on 17 May against foreign tourists in Bamyan, one Member State subsequently reported the involvement of a notorious ethnic Tajik commander, Mawlawi Nik Mohammad Aizaifa, head of the Taliban General Directorate of Intelligence in Bamyan Province.
The UN monitoring report rubbished claims of the Taliban government that Pakistan was supporting Daesh. “ISIL-K suffered a significant setback in the summer, when Pakistani security forces foiled an attempt by its external operations branch to establish itself inside Pakistan, resulting in the arrest of high-profile operatives,” according to the report. “These included Adil Panjsheri, Abu Munzir and Kaka Younis, who were central figures in the recruitment, travel and funding of fighters and suicide bombers, including those involved in the attacks in Kerman, Islamic Republic of Iran, and Moscow,” it adds.
Findings of the UN monitoring team, according to experts, have made it abundantly clear that Afghanistan once again is turning into the hub of terrorist groups of all hue and cry. Ignoring this mounting threat could lead to disastrous consequences for the region and beyond, warn experts.
