“Desire for better ties”: Afghanistan says 40 Pakistani Taliban were arrested.
“Desire for better ties”: Afghanistan says 40 Pakistani Taliban were arrested.
In a move that underscores Kabul’s goal to keep cordial ties with all of its neighbors, a senior official in the Afghan interior ministry said on Sunday that his administration had detained roughly 40 members of the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists, during the previous year.
For the first time, an Afghan official has stated that his nation’s authorities have taken action against TTP fighters, who Pakistan accuses of planning operations in the vicinity of its western border.
Pakistan’s officials claim that the TTP and related organizations with headquarters in Afghanistan are responsible for the surge in militant violence and suicide bombings that have occurred recently in the country.
Following a horrific Peshawar mosque attack that claimed the lives of over 100 worshippers, interim prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar disclosed last month that his nation had forced Kabul to choose between joining the militant network or Pakistan earlier in the year.
Tensions between the two nations have increased as a result of the TTP insurgent problem in Afghanistan, and Pakistan announced the expulsion of unregistered foreigners—primarily Afghans—citing security concerns.
“As of right now, no [militant] group is operating in Afghanistan,” spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani for the interior ministry said to TOLOnews. “We have a lot of Daesh captives with us, and we have about 35 to 40 TTP [fighters] imprisoned.”
He insisted that Kabul would not permit armed groups to exploit its territory and that it desired good relations with its neighbors.
He gave the Afghan media outlet his word that any threat to the security of his nation would be dealt with right away, with the guilty parties being found and taken into custody.
Pakistan has said that it wants militants who are launching cross-border assaults against its security forces and civilians to be turned over to Afghan authorities.
The Afghan government has invited Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a well-known religious lawmaker in Pakistan, to Kabul in the midst of the escalating hostilities; neither party has disclosed the purpose of the visit.
