ISLAMABAD: The United States said on Thursday it was working to prevent Afghanistan from turning into a hub of militant violence targeting its interests or posing a threat to other states like Pakistan, following a recent United Nations report expressing concerns over the rise of armed groups under the Taliban administration in Kabul.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks since November 2022, when a fragile truce between its government and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) broke down. Pakistani officials blamed the interim Afghan Taliban government for facilitating the group and urged it to take action against the armed militants, though Kabul rejected Islamabad’s claims.
The UN report, released this week, raised similar concerns about groups like TTP and Daesh, noting that they were launching cross-border attacks, particularly in Pakistan.
Asked about its findings and the claim that these groups had over 6,000 fighters attacking Pakistani soldiers and undermining regional peace, US State Department’s Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel highlighted his country’s counterterrorism efforts.
“We’re working to ensure that Afghanistan never serves as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against the United States or our allies,” he said during a media briefing. “We are taking a whole-of-government approach to our Afghanistan counterterrorism efforts.”
“We are cooperating with partners and allies, including in the immediate region,” he continued. “And we’re working vigilantly to prevent the re-emergence of external threats from Afghanistan, including by working with partners to counteract terrorist recruitment efforts as well.”
Patel agreed with the findings of the UN report, saying that Daesh had the “ambition and capacity to launch international terrorist attacks.”
Afghanistan was widely viewed as a hub of transnational militant groups, particularly during the years leading up to the US invasion in 2001 and throughout the subsequent two decades.
US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021 after securing an agreement with the Taliban in February 2020, which stipulated that the war-torn country would no longer be used as a militant basecamp.
In recent months, Washington has raised concerns about militant presence in Afghanistan, expressing its willingness to assist Pakistan with counterterrorism efforts.
US says working to prevent Afghanistan from becoming militant threat for countries like Pakistan
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US says working to prevent Afghanistan from becoming militant threat for countries like Pakistan
- US official says Washington is cooperating with partners, including those in the region, to deal with the issue
- The UN brought out a report this week, saying TTP and Daesh were launching cross-border attacks in Pakistan
Four people, including two policemen, killed in twin blasts in northwest Pakistan
- Attack on police van in South Waziristan and motorbike-mounted IED in Lakki Marwat hits KP province
- Violence comes amid a surge in militancy and cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: At least four people, including two policemen, were killed and about 20 others wounded in two separate blasts in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, officials said, the latest violence in a region grappling with militant violence.
One explosion targeted a police patrol van in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan district near the Afghan border, while another blast caused by explosives mounted on a motorbike struck a market area in Lakki Marwat district, according to police officials and preliminary reports.
The incidents come amid rising militant violence in Pakistan’s northwest, where authorities say armed groups operate from across the border in Afghanistan, straining relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul, with both sides engaged in a military conflict since last month.
“The control room received information in the evening about a bomb blast targeting a police van in Wana Bazaar,” a police official in the area, who did not want to be named, confirmed while speaking to Arab News over the phone.
He confirmed two deaths in the incident while saying more than 25 people had been injured.
The official said rescue teams responded promptly and shifted three seriously injured people to a nearby hospital in Wana.
In another incident during the day in Lakki Marwat, an improvised explosive device attached to a motorbike exploded near shops.
“Two people have been killed and about 10 have been injured in an IED blast in Lakki Marwat,” Raza Khan, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bannu, told Arab News.
“The deceased are identified as Shoaib Ur Rehman and Furqan Ullah,” he added. “Shoaib, the owner of the shop, was the brother of the Lakki peace committee head.”
Peace committees in the region are informal, community-based groups that work with security forces to report militant activity and maintain order, making their members frequent targets of attacks.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and expressed grief over the incidents.
“I strongly condemn the blast near a police patrolling vehicle in Wana Bazaar,” Naqvi said in a statement, confirming the killing of four people, including two police personnel.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police are on the front line in the war against terrorism,” he said, noting the force had made “unforgettable sacrifices” in the fight against militant groups.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan’s border regions in recent months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan territory — a charge Kabul denies — as cross-border tensions between the two neighbors have escalated.
