Pakistan based terror groups target India’s interests in Afghan

United Nations : Pakistan-based terror groups such as LeT, the Taliban, JeM and al-Qaeda target India's interests and goals in Afghanistan and pursue other objectives like creating sanctuaries and safe havens in tribal areas between Kabul and Islamabad, Afghan envoy to the UN has said.

In Afghanistan, regional terrorist groups have cooperated with the Taliban based on their common goals and mutual interests. These groups include Lashkar-e-Taiba, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Islam, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Eastern Turkistan Islamic movement.

These groups pose a strategic threat to the security and stability of Afghanistan," Permanent Afghan Representative Mahmoud Saikal said here at an open briefing of the Counter- Terrorism Committee on foreign terrorists on Friday.  

He said these terror groups "pursue a few objectives" in Afghanistan, the main among them being "revival of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistana, targeting India's interests and goals in Afghanistan" and forming "strategic alliances with international terrorist networks in the region and world."

These groups also seek withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, creating bases and safe havens in northern and north-eastern provinces and using them as a platform for "undermining and toppling" Central Asian "secular" governments, Saikal said. They also pursue the objective of creating "sanctuaries and safe havens" in tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan and along the Durand Line, the 2,430-kilometre long international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said there are 6,100 foreign fighters in Afghanistan, based mainly in eastern and north-eastern provinces. Among them about 1,800-2,000 have pledged allegiance to the ISIS. "We also have Pakistani terrorist groups like JeM, Laskhar-e-Islam also cooperating with the Taliban in eastern and south-eastern provinces of Afghanistan," Saikal said.