Pakistan has demanded that the United Nations agency should conduct a thorough investigation into the source of advanced military equipment acquired by the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as the South Asian country deals with surge in terrorist attacks.
“Pakistan demands that the United Nations – whether UNAMA or another agency – conduct a thorough investigation to illicit how these weapons got in the hands of the TTP and to identify ways of retrieving them,” Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Munir Akram said speaks at the UN Security Council’s UNAMA briefing on Afghanistan on Wednesday.
He was speaking about the recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Last week, the military’s media wing reported that 25 Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred while 27 terrorists were killed in three separate incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan.
The responsibility for the attack was claimed a TTP affiliated group.
Akram told the UN that such attacks have become “more lethal and sophisticated” since the banned organisation have acquired and used advanced military equipment. Such weapons originate from the considerable stocks left behind by foreign forces, he added.
“How did the TTP [Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan], a listed terrorist organisation, secure these weapons,” the country’s UN envoy asked and demanded an investigation into it.
“It is clear that the TTP has been given free rein to conduct cross-border attacks against Pakistan’s border outposts and other installations. We also have clear evidence that the TTP receives support from our main adversary,” he said.
In the recent past, there were reports that American weapons were used in different terrorist attacks in Pakistan. But the US has denied such reports.
“I want to be very clear about this: There was no equipment left behind by American forces during the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” US State Department’s deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said in November.
In September, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby at a press briefing vociferously rejected the notion that the US abandoned military hardware in Afghanistan. In his detailed response, he added that said that the Afghan forces abandoned that equipment, not the US.
Last year, the-then Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar accused India of planning and supporting the Lahore terrorist attack. She had told reporters that “no country had used terrorism better than India”.
Akram went on to add that the Afghan interim government should fulfill its commitments on two issues: reversal of restrictions on women and girls’ right to education and action against terrorist groups in the country.
He added that the Afghan government should work with the High Commission of Refugees to make preparations for the early repatriation of refugees.
“The current plan to repatriate illegal foreigners is an unavoidable compulsion for Pakistan, arising from a legitimate security, economic and social concerns,” Akram said and added that the country has made exceptions for those who have proof of registration; for those who have the Afghan citizenship cards and also for those who were “considered vulnerable.”
