Pakistani Taliban distributes leaflets in Afghanistan seeking ‘Jihad’ donations

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Amidst a sharp rise in terror incidents in Pakistan following the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August last year, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been reportedly circulating leaflets in Afghanistan seeking donations to support their “Jihad” across the Durand Line.

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Leaflets were found circulating on social media, asking people in Afghanistan’s Khost province to donate to support their jihad in Pakistan.

“We’re doing what our brothers (referring to Afghanistan Taliban) used to do (collect donations) in Pakistan”, one TTP personnel from Pakistan’s Waziristan was reported as saying by local vernacular media.

TTP, a conglomerate of ethnic Pashtun Islamist militant groups, operates from Pakistan’s north-western tribal area of North Waziristan and has been fighting the Pakistani state in various forms since 2007.

“Despite massive military operations against the TTP by the Pakistan military and US ‘droning’, this global jihadi organization of anti-Pak orientation has survived. It has intensified offensive against the government forces across the border ringing the first alarm bells that terror outfits are leveraging the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan to launch cross-border attacks,” said the International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS), a Canada based think tank.

The development comes at a time when terror incidents in Pakistan are on a rise, with terror incidents in the country increasing by a whopping 56 per cent in the year 2021, with the majority of the terror attacks taking place in the later months, after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August.

At least 388 people died and another 600 were wounded in terrorist attacks in the country in 2021, according to Islamabad-based think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.

The recent links established between the TTP and the Afghan Taliban pose another security challenge for Pakistan as low-level Afghan Taliban cadres are said to maintain their links with the TTP, a fact recognized by the senior Afghan Taliban leadership, an IFFRAS report said.

Afghan Taliban is infuriated by a fence Islamabad is erecting along their 2,700-kilometre (1,600-mile) border, known as the Durand Line. Taliban doesn’t recognise the Durand Line as the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Another headache for Pakistan’s security establishment is the thriving weapons markets along the Afghan-Pakistan border and terrorist/insurgent groups buying the weapons left behind by the US and its allies.

As a result of these factors, Pakistan is sitting on a tinderbox, the report said, adding that instability in Afghanistan is one factor that will constantly impact Pakistan. (ANI)