Islamabad, 23 June 2024 (TDI): Pakistan has consistently advocated sustained engagement with the Afghan Interim Authorities to normalize the situation in Afghanistan.
Ambassador Akram stated that the international community must help the 23 million Afghans who need humanitarian assistance.
Second, it is equally important to take adequate measures to revive the Afghan economy and find pathways for sustained development.
Moreover, it is also essential to kick-start the planned infrastructure and regional connectivity projects.
The AIG must also abide by its obligations in conformity with international law and established norms.
He added that the world remains concerned about the restrictions imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan. These do not conform to international law or the tenets of Islam. The AIG is expected to ensure women’s and girls’ rights to education, work, and other human rights.
Terrorism and Security Concerns
However, the highest priority for the international community remains the elimination of terrorism within and from Afghanistan.
Among terrorist groups, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) poses the most severe and direct threat to Pakistan. The TTP and its associates have been responsible for numerous cross-border attacks against Pakistan, resulting in hundreds of civilian and military casualties.
The TTP has acquired sophisticated weapons, which has intensified the lethality of its terrorist attacks.
So far, Pakistan has repeatedly conveyed to the AIG, at very senior levels, that it must act decisively to halt the cross-border terrorist attacks by the TTP and its associates, disarm the TTP fighters, and capture and hand over the TTP terrorists to Pakistan.
Unfortunately, despite promises, no meaningful action has been taken so far. TTP safe havens remain close to Pakistan’s borders. Cross-border attacks have continued, including one by a TTP associate that killed several Chinese engineers working on the Dasu hydropower project.
On 16 March, TTP terrorists belonging to the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group conducted a cross-border terrorist attack, which resulted in the martyrdom of several Pakistani soldiers.
On 18 March, Pakistan carried out intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations in the border regions inside Afghanistan to defend our territory against such cross-border attacks by TTP terrorists. Terrorists were killed, not civilians.
Ambassador Akram said that the Security Council has condemned several of these terrorist attacks against Pakistan. The Council should call on the AIG to sever its links with the TTP and its associates, prevent them from carrying out cross-border attacks against Pakistan, disarm the TTP terrorists, and Capture the TTP’s leadership and hand them over to Pakistan.
Call for Action
We also expect the UN to take a similar position consistent with Security Council resolutions and the reports submitted to the 1267 and 1988 Sanctions Committees, he said
He added that the UN should also investigate how the TTP acquired its advanced weapons and the sources of the TTP’s funding, including external sources, enabling it to maintain up to 50,000 TTP fighters and their families.
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While UNAMA does not have a counter-terrorism mandate, this should not imply inaction by the UN. The relevant UN bodies must be activated to enable the UN to play its part in putting an end to the terrorist menace which, once again, has emerged from Afghanistan.
