ISLAMABAD: The Afghan Taliban government has said Kabul is ready to negotiate talks between Pakistan and the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group if Islamabad requested the mediation, Afghanistan’s ToloNews agency reported on Tuesday.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been strained lately, mainly due to border skirmishes and a sharp rise in militant attacks by the TTP, which Islamabad says has been emboldened by the Afghan Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021. Attacks by the TTP, a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, have risen since the militant group unilaterally called off a fragile truce with the Pakistani government last November. The cease-fire was 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 neighboring Afghanistan after the Pakistan military launched a series of operations against the group’s stronghold, North Waziristan, starting in 2014.

“If Pakistan wants us to mediate, and we know that it is beneficial, we will undoubtedly mediate as it benefits the region and we don’t want war in the region,” Afghanistan’s Tolonews quoted Afghan Taliban spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid, as saying.

However, he reiterated that the TTP was not using Afghan soil to launch attacks on Pakistan or any other country and the Taliban administration would not allow such a move.

“We don’t have any type of connection with the TTP in that we support them, or are with them, on the contrary, we do not allow them to be active in Afghanistan,” Mujahid said.

Last week, Pakistan’s state minister for foreign affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar, said Islamabad was taking a “highly diplomatic approach” to deal with the TTP by engaging in talks with the Afghan Taliban rather than resorting to “strong-arm tactics.”

“Threatening anyone normally gets you worse results than the ones you started with,” she told the US-based publication, POLITICO. 

“Even when it is exceptionally difficult to engage at a point when you think your red lines have not been taken seriously, we will still try the route of engagement.”