Taliban moving away terrorists from Pak-Afghan border

Islamabad: The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has started taking steps to shift terrorist groups away from the regions bordering Pakistan following a series of recent crossborder attacks that killed nearly a dozen Pakistani soldiers and prompted a strong reaction from Islamabad, a media report said on Monday.

Pakistan, in recent months, has been increasingly frustrated by the Taliban government’s reluctance to eliminate the terrorist groups, including the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The Taliban leadership is not ready to take action partly because these groups fought alongside the Taliban against the USled foreign forces and also share the same ideology.

A senior Pakistani official familiar with the development told The Express Tribune on Sunday that after the recent spate of crossborder attacks, Pakistan conveyed in clear terms to the Taliban leadership to take action against the terrorist groups or face the consequences.

“Some of the groups have already been moved out of our border regions,” said the senior official, who deals with the issue. Pakistan though does not agree with the approach, it accepts the Taliban’s decision to at least stop the immediate cross-border attacks, said the official who did not want to be identified.

“Our demand is clear that these groups must be eliminated or dealt with in a manner that they never pose threat to us again,” the report quoted the official as saying. There has been a surge in crossborder terrorist attacks in recent weeks with a number of Pakistani soldiers getting killed. (PTI)