A new United Nations Security Council report has revealed that Afghan Taliban have provided significant resources and protection to various terrorist outfits including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The thirty-fifth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, issued on this week, has based its findings based on data collected between June 21 and December 13 of last year. It has detailed the activities of terrorist groups around various regions in the world including Africa and Asia.
Among the report’s most damning revelations is the fact that the Afghan Taliban gave a monthly payment of 3 million Afghanis (around $43,000) to TTP’s chief Noor Wali Mehsud.
The TTP has established new training centres in Afghan provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar, Khost and Paktika and has expanded its recruitment to include members of the Afghan Taliban as well, according to the report.
The report notes that “the status and strength of TTP in Afghanistan had not changed.” However, the TTP has still managed to step up operations in Pakistan with over 600 attacks taking place during the report’s time frame.
The TTP’s links and coordination with other terrorist groups has also been detailed in the report. It reveals that TTP is not only coordinating with Afghan Taliban but with Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent and Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement as well.
The report has noted that the TTP’s linkages with other terror organisations could lead to it becoming an umbrella organisation directing terror attacks in the region.
“Greater facilitation among these groups and TTP in terms of the provision of suicide bombers and fighters and ideological guidance might transform the latter into an extraregional threat and an umbrella organization for other terrorist groups operating in the region,” the report noted.
The report comes at a time when TTP is ‘rebranding’ itself as a territorial organisation by copying the structure of the Afghan Taliban. The group has publicly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban as well. Meanwhile, Pakistan has continuously called upon the Afghan Interim Government to prevent the use of its territory by the TTP.
