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ISLAMABAD —A new United Nations report says the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an alliance of extremist groups, is "the largest terrorist group" in Afghanistan and receives growing support from that country's Taliban rulers to conduct cross-border attacks in Pakistan.
The U.N. sanctions monitoring team released the assessment late Wednesday amid a dramatic surge in TTP-led terror attacks against Pakistani security forces and civilians, killing hundreds of them in recent weeks.
"TTP continues to operate at a significant scale in Afghanistan and to conduct terrorist operations into Pakistan from there, often utilizing Afghans," the report read. It noted that the globally designated terrorist group, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, is operating in Afghanistan with an estimated strength of 6,000-6,500 fighters.
"Further, the Taliban have proved unable or unwilling to manage the threat from Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, whose attacks into Pakistan have intensified," the document said. "Taliban support to TTP also appears to have increased."
The deadly violence has strained relations between Islamabad and the de facto Taliban government in Kabul, which denies allegations of the presence of any terrorist groups or that it allows the use of Afghan soil to threaten neighboring countries.
"The Taliban do not conceive of TTP as a terrorist group: the bonds are close, and the debt owed to TTP is significant," the U.N. report said.
TTP emerged in Pakistan's volatile border areas in 2007, providing recruits and shelter to the Afghan Taliban as they intensified insurgent attacks against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in the years that followed.
The international forces withdrew from the country in August 2021, clearing the way for the Taliban to reclaim power from the then-U.S.-backed Afghan government in Kabul.
Al-Qaida links
The U.N. report said regional al-Qaida operatives in Afghanistan, who have long-term ties to the Taliban, are assisting TTP in conducting high-profile terrorist activities inside Pakistan.
The Taliban have not immediately responded to the latest U.N. findings, but they have previously rejected such reports as propaganda meant to malign their government, which they call the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
The U.N. assessment quoted member states as noting that TTP operatives, along with local fighters, are being trained in al-Qaida camps that the terrorist outfit has set up in multiple border provinces such as Nangarhar, Kandahar, Kunar, and Nuristan. Al-Qaida's support for TTP also involves sharing Afghan fighters for military staffing or attack formations.
The report quoted one U.N. member state as expressing concern that "greater collaboration" with al-Qaida could transform TTP into an "extra-regional threat."
US weapons and TTP
U.N. member states reiterated that NATO "caliber weapons, especially night vision capability, that have been provided to TTP since the Taliban takeover add lethality to TTP terrorist attacks against Pakistani military border posts."
Officials in Islamabad have also repeatedly attributed the increasing number of casualties among security forces to the modern U.S. weapons that were left behind by international forces and have fallen into the hands of TTP.
The U.S. Department of Defense responded to the allegations in a quarterly report made public in late May, saying that Pakistani intelligence forces recovered a few U.S.-manufactured small arms, including M-16 and M-4 rifles, following counterterrorism operations earlier this year.
"Militants, including the TTP, are probably using only a limited quantity of U.S.-origin weaponry and equipment, including small arms and night vision goggles, to conduct attacks in Pakistan," the U.S. report said. It added, however, that "the amount of U.S.-origin weaponry that Pakistani sources allege is in the hands of anti-Pakistan militants is likely an exaggeration."
Islamabad has repeatedly called on Kabul to rein in TTP-led cross-border terrorism, apprehend its leaders, including Mehsud, and hand them over to Pakistan. The Taliban's response has been that TTP is an internal security issue for Pakistan to handle instead of blaming Afghanistan.
TTP has gradually intensified the number of attacks against Pakistan from 573 in 2021 to 1,203 in 2023, with the trend continuing into 2024, according to the U.N. report. Pakistani officials also attribute the spike in violence to the "greater operational freedom" the terror outfit has enjoyed in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power almost three years ago.
The Taliban's spy agency, the General Directorate of Intelligence, facilitated three new guest houses in Kabul for TTP leaders and reportedly issued passes to senior TTP figures to facilitate ease of movement and immunity from arrest, as well as weapons permits, according to the U.N. report.
The assessment noted that the Taliban are concerned that "excessive pressure" might lead TTP to collaborate with the Afghanistan-based Islamic State affiliate, known as IS Khorasan, which routinely plots deadly attacks on Taliban security forces and members of the Afghan Shiite minority.