Afghan Taliban-Pakistan ties Photograph:(Reuters)
New Delhi, India
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is the largest terrorist group operating in Afghanistan with increased support from the Taliban government for TTP's cross-border attacks into Pakistan, a newly released United Nations report has found.
The report's findings point to the violation of the Doha agreement signed between the Taliban and the United States which led to the withdrawal of the Western forces stationed in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks.
The UN sanctions monitoring team issued this assessment earlier this week amid a significant surge in TTP-led terror attacks targeting Pakistani security forces and civilians, which have resulted in hundreds of deaths in recent weeks.
The report states, "TTP continues to operate at a significant scale in Afghanistan and to conduct terrorist operations into Pakistan from there, often utilising Afghans."
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It estimates the strength of TTP to be between 6,000 and 6,500 fighters in Afghanistan.
"Further, the Taliban have proved unable or unwilling to manage the threat from Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, whose attacks into Pakistan have intensified," the document added.
"Taliban support to TTP also appears to have increased."
The escalating violence has strained relations between Islamabad and the Taliban-led government in Kabul, which denies harbouring any terrorist groups or permitting the use of Afghan soil for attacks on neighbouring countries.
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"The Taliban do not conceive of TTP as a terrorist group: the bonds are close, and the debt owed to TTP is significant," the UN report asserted.
TTP emerged in Pakistan’s border areas in 2007, providing recruits and shelter to the Afghan Taliban, who intensified insurgent attacks against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The Taliban have not yet responded to the UN's findings but they have previously dismissed similar reports as propaganda against their government.
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The report mentions that TTP operatives and local fighters receive training in al-Qaeda camps in border provinces such as Nangarhar, Kandahar, Kunar, and Nuristan. Al-Qaeda also supports TTP by sharing Afghan fighters for military operations.
One UN member state expressed concern that increased collaboration with al-Qaeda could turn TTP into an "extra-regional threat."
NATO-caliber weapons, especially night vision equipment, provided to TTP since the Taliban's takeover, have added to the lethality of their attacks on Pakistani military posts, according to UN member states.