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islamabad – Taliban authorities in Afghanistan introduced their plan Sunday to maneuver hundreds of Pakistani refugees away from border provinces amid sustained allegations the displaced inhabitants is the supply of rising terrorism in neighboring Pakistan.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesman, instructed VOA by telephone that the refugees presently reside in Khost, Kunar and a few adjoining Afghan border provinces.
‘The Islamic Emirate plans to relocate them to far-flung provinces (in Afghanistan) to make sure they do not have entry to the (border) traces nor are they concerned in assaults or another acts of violence that occur in Pakistan,’ Mujahid stated, utilizing the official title of the Taliban authorities. He didn’t elaborate.
The plan comes amid a dramatic surge in cross-border militant assaults in Pakistan because the Taliban reclaimed energy in Kabul virtually 22 months in the past. The violence has killed tons of of individuals, largely Pakistani safety forces, particularly in districts close to the Afghan border.
The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), allegedly working out of Afghan soil, has claimed credit score for a lot of the lethal violence.
Hostility in Sunday
The newest hostility occurred Sunday within the unstable North Waziristan border district, the place the Pakistani navy stated {that a} safety raid towards a ‘terrorists’ location’ had killed two troopers and two militants.
Officers in Islamabad preserve fugitive TTP leaders and fighters, together with their households, reside amongst tens of hundreds of Pakistanis who’ve taken refuge in Afghanistan after fleeing a 2014 large-scale counterterrorism navy operation within the Waziristan border district of Pakistan.
The Norwegian Refugee Council estimated in an October 2019 report that a lot of the roughly 72,000 Pakistani refugees settled on Afghan soil have been residing in a makeshift camp in Khost on the border between the 2 nations.
Islamabad presses Kabul
Islamabad has been urgent Kabul to rein in cross-border TTP violence and complaining that the group enjoys ‘higher operational freedom’ after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Pakistani officers say that members of the Afghan Taliban have additionally been serving to TTP perform cross-border assaults.
Mujahid and different Taliban officers have repeatedly denied allegations they’re permitting any group to threaten Afghanistan’s neighbors, together with Pakistan or another nation.
Whereas Mujahid didn’t identify TTP in his feedback Sunday, a high Pakistani official instructed VOA final week that the Taliban had not too long ago instructed Islamabad they intend to ‘relocate TTP members’ from the border areas to distant Afghan provinces.
Inside Minister Rana Sanaullah added that the Taliban proposal might restrict the entry of TTP to Pakistan. He didn’t elaborate.
The militant group, also referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, claims its insurgency in Pakistan is geared toward overthrowing the federal government, calling it ‘un-Islamic.’
Washington has additionally outlawed TTP as a worldwide terrorist group.
GSettlement negotiations collapse
TTP is an offshoot and shut ally of the Afghan Taliban. It offered shelter on Pakistani soil and recruits to the Afghan Taliban as they waged rebel assaults on U.S.-led worldwide troops and the previous Afghan authorities for nearly 20 years till they seized energy in 2021.
Shortly after taking management of Afghanistan, the Taliban hosted talks between TTP leaders and Pakistani officers to barter a settlement. However the course of collapsed final November when the Pakistani Taliban terminated a unilateral shaky cease-fire with the federal government and has since intensified its violent marketing campaign.
The violence has strained Pakistan’s relations with Taliban-governed, landlocked Afghanistan, which closely depends on land routes and seaports of the neighboring nation to conduct bilateral and transit commerce actions.
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