UNITED NATIONS: Da’ish and its affiliates like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has its stronghold in Afghanistan and is now armed with NATO-calibre weaponry, continue to represent a severe threat, according to a UN report discussed at a Security Council meeting in New York.
Vladimir Voronkov, head of the UN Counter-Terrorism Office (UNOCT) and Natalia Gherman, Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, told the Security Council on Friday that IS and its affiliates, such as TTP, now armed with Nato-calibre weapons, continue to pose a serious threat in conflict zones and neighboring countries.
While the banned TTP has a history of attacking targets inside Pakistan, the militant Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) group has also carried out attacks inside Pakistan recently, including on a JUI-F convention in July that killed 40 people and injured more than 100.
The report said, “With the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, member states expressed concern over the proliferation of large quantities of weapons and other military equipment within Afghanistan and into neighbouring states.
“Regional member states reported that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-calibre weapons typically associated with the former Afghan National Defence and security forces were being transferred to ISIL-K by groups affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaida, such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).”
In response to the UN Security Council Report on ISIS, IEA Spokesman’s Statementhttps://t.co/Ksoqwf1ipd pic.twitter.com/Vbd09bfjoT
— Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م ) (@Zabehulah_M33) August 26, 2023
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, however, rejected such claims as ‘unfounded.’ In a response posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account, he claimed that since the Taliban takeover, “activities of the Daesh group in Afghanistan have been reduced to zero”.
