ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's foreign office on Monday rejected Kabul's claims that a banned militant outfit - the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad blames for many high-profile attacks on its soil - was not present or active in Afghanistan.
A United Nations report last July said more than 6,000 Pakistani insurgents are hiding in Afghanistan, most belonging to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban group responsible for attacking Pakistani military and civilian targets.
On Sunday, the Afghan foreign minister denied the TTP's presence in Afghanistan.
"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. "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 Islamic State 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 group 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 has 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.
