ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Monday urged the Pakistan government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to engage in talks amid a rise in attacks in the country by the banned militant group which Islamabad says has been emboldened by the Afghan Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021.

The Pakistani Taliban, also called the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban. The outfit has intensified its attacks against Pakistani security forces since November last year when it unilaterally called off a fragile truce brokered by the Afghan Taliban.

Officials in Islamabad have since repeatedly said Kabul was not doing enough to counter the activities of the TTP, many of whose commanders and soldiers fled to neighbouring Afghanistan after the Pakistan military launched a series of operations against the group’s stronghold, North Waziristan, starting in 2014.

“With regards to the security situation in Pakistan, our request to both TTP and the govt of Pakistan is to sit down and resolve their problems by developing an understanding,” Muttaqi, who is in Pakistan on a four day visit, mainly to attend the China-Pakistan-Afghanistan Trilateral dialogue, said at a public lecture hosted by a government think tank.

Angered by Pakistan’s cooperation with Washington in the war on terrorism after the 9/11 attacks, the TTP was officially set up by Pakistani militants in 2007 when different outlawed groups agreed to work together against Pakistan and support the Afghan Taliban, who were fighting US and NATO forces.

The TTP seeks stricter enforcement of Islamic laws, the release of its members in government custody, and a reduction in Pakistani military presence in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the northwestern province bordering Afghanistan that it has long used as a base.

Responding to accusations that the TTP had been emboldened by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Muttaqi said Pakistan and the TTP had a “history” much before the Taliban came to power in the neighbouring country in 2021, adding that Kabul would not allow anyone to use its territory against other nations, including Pakistan. He rejected that terror organizations, including the TTP, had bases in Afghanistan.

“With respect to this trilateral, one of the points that we raised and on which we agreed upon is that no one should allow their ground space or airspace to be used against each other’s territories and this is a very good achievement,” Muttaqi said, speaking about the weekend’s trilateral meeting between Pakistan, China and Afghanistan.

A joint statement after the trilateral meeting said the three sides “stressed on the need of not allowing any individual, group or party, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) etc., to use their territories to harm and threaten regional security and interests, or conduct terrorist actions and activities.”

China blames violent unrest in its far western region of Xinjiang on separatist groups like ETIM, which it says wants to set up an independent state called East Turkestan, with bases in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“All three sides underscored the need to refrain from intervening into internal affairs of Afghanistan, and to promote Afghan peace, stability and reconstruction.”

Moving forward, Muttaqi said, Pakistan and Afghanistan needed “joint efforts” to solve their shared problems.

“Afghanistan and Pakistan need to join hands to invest in infrastructure projects, particularly transportation, rail, and road,” the acting foreign minister said. “For too long the economic and people-to-people ties of the two countries have been sacrificed due to the political considerations resulting in the loss of major opportunities.”

Muttaqi called for the two nations to take “firm steps that integrate the two nations' economies.”

He said regional connectivity was the top priority of the Afghan regime.

“Our focus has not just been the Afghanistan economy but we are continuously striving to increase regional connectivity from Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) pipeline to CASA 1000 [Central Asia-South Asia power project], through Afghan transit trade, connecting south to Central Asia through Afghanistan, we continue to advocate greater integration,” he added.

“As an example, we recently facilitated the transfer of gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan,” he said, adding that after the successful trial, the Afghan government was committed to supporting this process as a permanent route that guaranteed the interests of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Pakistan.

Responding to a question regarding a ban of girl's education in Afghanistan, including barring women from university and closing girls' high schools, the minister said the Taliban government had never said female education was against Islamic or banned it permanently.

“We have 10 million students currently attending primary to university level education in the different institutions, out of them 9 million are currently able to access all forms of education including girls up to grade six,” Muttaqi said.

Out of 300,000 teachers in Afghan institutions, Muttaqi said 92,000 were women.

“Our girls and women are also attending madrasahs at different levels and also participating in their teaching and education as we have addressed this issue to a very large extent,” the minister said, “and the small issue that remained, the government of Afghanistan will continue to exert efforts to address those issues.”