ISLAMABAD: The Afghan Taliban have said the group would not allow the militant Pakistan Taliban to use Afghanistan’s soil against Pakistan after the withdrawal of United States and allied forces later this year, saying the two groups were separate entities.
The Pakistani Taliban, fighting to overthrow the Pakistan government and install their own brand of strict Islam, are an umbrella of militant groups called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which in recent years has broken into many divisions.
The TTP has been designated a terrorist group by the United States but been in disarray in recent years, especially after several of its top leaders were killed by US drone strikes on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border, forcing its members into shelter in Afghanistan or to flee to urban Pakistan.
Bolstering their bid to re-establish themselves in the border lands, the group struck an alliance in July last year with half a dozen small militant factions. Since then, the TTP has stepped up attacks on security forces in northwest Pakistan, raising fears of a revival of their insurgency with support from the Afghan Taliban, especially as US forces continue to pull out of war-torn Afghanistan and the Afghan Taliban capture more territory.
“Pakistani Taliban are not our problem and it is Pakistan’s internal issue and we pray for the resolution of [Pakistan’s] internal matters amicably,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an interview to Pakistani TV channel Hum News on Monday night.
“From our country [Afghanistan], not a single person will be allowed to use our land and interfere in neighboring country [Pakistan], and we will not allow [anyone] to attack Pakistan using Afghan soil.”
On a separate political talk show on Hum News, another Afghan Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, also reiterated that the group would not allow Afghan soil to be used against any other country or individual, adding that the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan was not a part of the Afghan Taliban.
Last month, Pakistan’s foreign office rejected claims by the Afghan foreign minister that the TTP was not present or active in Afghanistan.
A United Nations report last July said more than 6,000 Pakistani insurgents were hiding in Afghanistan, most belonging to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban group responsible for attacking Pakistani military and civilian targets.
“Over last many years, TTP has launched several gruesome terrorist attacks inside Pakistan using Afghan soil without any retribution from its hosts,” the Pakistani foreign office said in June. “TTP following its orchestrated reunification with its splinter groups with the help of Hostile Intelligence Agencies (HIAs), its continued presence in Afghanistan with impunity and its cross-border attacks against Pakistan, pose persistent threat to our security and stability.”
The UN report last year said the Tehreek-e-Taliban had linked up with the Afghan-based affiliate of the Daesh group or Daesh. Some of TTP’s members had even joined the Daesh affiliate, which had its headquarters in eastern Afghanistan, the UN said.
The TTP has claimed responsibility for many high profile assaults in Pakistan, including an armed attack on a school in Peshawar in 2014 in which 134 children and 19 adults were killed. The TTP also claimed the 2012 shooting of then teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, targeted for her campaign against Taliban efforts to deny girls education.
Pakistan began fencing its 2,600 km porous border with Afghanistan in 2017 to prevent militants crossing into the country and says it has completed nearly 90 percent of the work.