Washington DC : Pakistan has alerted the United Nations Security Council that militant outfits operating from Afghan territory continue to endanger its security, and called for more decisive global measures to counter these networks, both offline and online.
Speaking at a Council session on Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmed, said groups such as Al Qaeda, IS-Khorasan, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), as well as Baloch insurgent organizations like the BLA and its Majeed Brigade faction, remain active and use cross-border sanctuaries with impunity.
He warned that these outfits collaborate closely, citing evidence of joint training, arms smuggling, sheltering of militants, and coordinated attacks inside Pakistan. “There are more than 60 training facilities being used as bases for infiltration and assaults against civilians, security forces and development projects,” the envoy told the Council.
Ambassador Ahmed added that the threat was not limited to physical spaces. Nearly 70 extremist propaganda accounts linked to Afghan IP addresses had been identified spreading violent messaging online, he said, urging social media companies to work more directly with governments to disrupt such networks.
He further informed the Council that Pakistan and China had jointly petitioned the UN’s 1267 Sanctions Committee to list the BLA and Majeed Brigade as terrorist groups, and pressed the Council to expedite the process.
Highlighting the scale of the problem, he described the TTP as the largest UN-designated terrorist organization operating in Afghanistan, with around 6,000 fighters. Pakistan, he noted, had foiled numerous infiltration attempts and seized sophisticated weaponry abandoned during the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan. “These operations come at great cost, only this month, 12 of our soldiers were martyred in a single attack,” he said.
Sohail Majeed is a Special Correspondent at The Diplomatic Insight. He has twelve plus years of experience in journalism & reporting. He covers International Affairs, Diplomacy, UN, Sports, Climate Change, Economy, Technology, and Health.
