Pakistan using terror ecosystem as strategic instrument against neighbours: Report

Kabul: As Afghanistan continues to report cross-border infiltration by militants supported and trained by Pakistan's security agencies, Taliban has once again slammed Islamabad for creating unrest within Afghanistan, a report has highlighted.

Recently, Taliban said its forces killed 41 terrorists and captured 62 others in Nuristan, who were linked with ISIS-affiliated groups and backed by Pakistani authorities, a report in Kathmandu-based Hamrakura highlighted.

Afghanistan's Defence Ministry said that terrorists tried to infiltrate into Afghanistan with the “direct guidance and cooperation” of the Pakistani military.

US has also accused Pakistan of allowing the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) to conduct attacks when American soldiers were deployed in Afghanistan. The then-US Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen had said, "The Haqqani network, for one, acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s intelligence."

For years, India has blamed Pakistan for cross-border terrorism, infiltrating militants into Jammu and Kashmir and facilitating the execution of bomb blasts and killings across the country. India has several times presented concrete evidence about Pakistan state actors' active involvement. In response to the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in April last year, India carried out airstrikes targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Iran too has accused Pakistan of supporting anti-Iranian forces, who conducted attacks across the border. Tehran has also accused Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of backing the militants.

Investigations have revealed a connection between terrorist attacks in Europe and Pakistan-based outfits. Europe has recognised Pakistan as a safe haven for terrorism, and the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) has recorded a "strong" link between the ISI and LeT, the Hamrakura report mentioned.

"It is ironic that Pakistan has faced allegations of infiltrating militants into Afghanistan, which it called a source of terrorism earlier. The government in Pakistan set up a terrorism ecosystem as a strategic instrument against neighbours. However, the very militancy ecosystem turned against Pakistan itself. The institutionalisation of militant networks as an instrument of security policy has made Pakistan a source of a source and exporter of terrorism and cross-border infiltration," Hamrakura mentioned in a report.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

IANS

[email protected]