Islamabad: (Raja Furqan Ahmed) The United Nations Security Council said in a report that an estimated 6,000 to 6,500 Pakistani terrorist fighters were currently in Afghanistan and posed a threat to both countries. According to the 26th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring, most of these fighters were Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members and were led by Noor Wali Mehsud, the emir of TTP. The UN report was on Daesh and al-Qaeda and associated groups operating around the world.
On the topic of COVID-19, the monitoring team said the pandemic has an effect on terrorism but the impact of coronavirus was varied. In some regions, groups were using the pandemic to advance propaganda and fundraising, and in some regions, these groups are seeking to take advantage of perceptions that the attention of security forces is diverted elsewhere. “At the same time, the pandemic has made cross-border travel more difficult and targets more elusive, and the operational tempo of attacks has slowed discernibly in some regions,” the report claim.
The report stated that al-Qaeda meanwhile is entrenching in regions beyond its historical stronghold in Afghanistan, where it faces a serious challenge if the peace process develops momentum. The group “exploits the tarnished ISIL (Daesh) brand and societal fractures to enhance legitimacy and gain local traction and recruits. The relationship between ISIL and al-Qaeda remains fraught and idiosyncratic, depending on regional dynamics.”
The report also states al-Qaeda is covertly active in 12 Afghan provinces and the group’s Egyptian leader Aiman al-Zawahiri remains based in the country. The total number of al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan is between 400 and 600. “The leadership maintains close contact with the Haqqani Network. In February 2020, al-Zawahiri met with Yahya Haqqani, the primary Haqqani Network contact with al-Qaeda since mid-2009, to discuss. The UN’s Monitoring Team estimates the current Daesh membership in Afghanistan is around 2,200. They say the leader is Matiullah Kamahwal and Syrian national Abu Said Mohammad al-Khorasani.
On the other hand, Pakistan foreign office yet to comment on this report.
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