Terror attacks in Pak up since Taliban took over in Afghanistan; Report

Kabul [Afghanistan], December 28 (ANI): Terror attacks in Pakistan have increased 51 per cent since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August last year, the Khaama Press of afghanistan said in a report.

It added that rise in terrorist incidents shows that Pakistan's decades-old Afghan policy, to which the esrtwhile Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had lent support when in power, had failed.

According to a Khaama Press report, the Afghan Taliban is challenging Pakistan by letting loose the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Pakistan. The PTI chief and then Prime Minister of the country had announced that the Taliban had broken "the shackles of slavery". Many other Pakistanis also celebrated at the time, but they regret their statements today, the report said, adding that strengthening of the Taliban in Afghanistan has resulted in terror attacks in neighbouring Pakistan.

According to the Khaama Press Report, General Faiz Hameed, the then director general of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), went above his then Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa and flew to Kabul in mid-2021 to support Taliban's efforts against the Panjshir fighters in Northern Afghanistan.

This was also the time when many TTP leaders were released by Pakistan, the report ran, adding that Lt. Gen. Hameed visited Kabul again this year to persuade the Afghan Taliban to broker a peace deal with the TTP.

However, the peace treaty reached then stands revoked since November 28, this year.

As soon as the new chief of Army Staff, General Asim Munir, assumed charge, he met senior generals at the army general headquarters in Rawalpindi, the report noted, adding that the launch of a military operation over TTP in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Balochistan was decided there.

This was followed by an attack on the Pakistan embassy in Kabul earlier in December.

On December 11, the Taliban shelled Pakistan's border areas, killing seven civilians. Pakistan in retaliation killed one Taliban fighter while injuring ten Afghan locals.

Further, on December 15, the two sides exchanged artillery fire which left at least one Pakistani civilian dead and wounded 15 others.

In the current regime, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, while visiting many countries, has not visited the Afghan capital. He, instead, sent Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to Kabul. She was the first female minister who tried to hold talks with Taliban Defense minister Mullah Yaqoob, the Khaama Press claimed, adding, however, that Yaqoob refused to meet her.

The report also says that the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul in July 2022 by a US drone sent already tense relations between the Afghans and the Pakistanis to a new low. The Taliban blamed Islamabad for al-Zawahiri's death, which was not incorrect as Pakistan had allowed the US to use its airspace to launch the strike. (ANI)