United Nations: A top UN official has voiced concern over the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, noting that it is not only the ISIS that constitutes a threat but also the TTP, a major concern for neighbouring Pakistan.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Roza Otunbayeva, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that Afghanistan has been a challenge for the international community for decades.
“It has been the source of instability, terrorism exported to the rest of the world, the source of 85 per cent of the world’s opium production, the home of millions of refugees who have been driven to make their home in neighbouring countries, and millions more who have chosen to make their home far away where their sons and daughters can be educated,” she said.
“In the region and beyond, there are well-founded concerns over the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan. These concerns have been reflected in the reports of the sanctions monitoring teams. It is not only Daesh (ISIS) that constitutes a threat but also the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a major concern for Pakistan which has seen an increase in terrorist activity,” Otunbayeva said.
In his report on the situation in Afghanistan, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the presence of the TTP members on Afghan territory continued, leading to multiple security incidents on the border.
The report noted that there were several exchanges of fire between TTP militants and Pakistani security forces in Paktiya province.
In November, Pakistani forces reportedly opened fire on the de facto security forces in Kunar province while the latter was building a new outpost close to the border.
“The illicit accumulation and diversion of small arms, light weapons, ammunition and explosives remain a security concern,” the report added.
It said the de-facto security forces reported seizures of firearms in 17 provinces of Afghanistan, compared with 14 provinces in the previous reporting period.
“These included the discovery of several caches of weapons in abandoned properties and the arrests in Paktiya and Kandahar provinces of alleged firearms traffickers aiming to transport weapons to Pakistan,” the report said.
Last month, the 18th report of the UN Secretary-General on the threat posed by ISIL (Daesh) to international peace and security and the range of United Nations efforts in support of Member States in countering the threat’, said that UN Member States expressed concern about the proliferation of weapons in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa, in particular the continued increased use of unmanned aircraft systems and improvised explosive devices by Daesh.
“Several Member States reported continued proliferation of weapons from stockpiles left in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover. Member States continued to report that ISIL-K sought and obtained such weapons from Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan,” the report said.
It added that UN Member States continued to report that the high concentration of terrorist groups in Afghanistan undermined the security situation in the region.
Last month, a similar report said that according to UN Member States, the strength of the Daesh affiliate in Afghanistan – Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-K) – increased from earlier estimates of 2,200 fighters to now approaching 4,000 following the release by the Taliban of several thousand individuals from prison.
Member States had also expressed concern that terrorist groups enjoyed greater freedom in Afghanistan than at any time in recent history in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August 2021.
