THE 11th edition of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2024 report supports Pakistan’s UNSC position that terrorist attacks have become more lethal. The Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace recorded a 22% decrease in terrorist attacks but a 22% increase in terrorism-related fatalities, indicating a 56% increase in average deaths in an incident. This increase in the lethality of terrorist attacks indicates that terrorist outfits have access to modern weapons, explosives, training resources and technologies. In this regard, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN has already asked for an international probe to ascertain how TTP got access to leftover weaponry from ISAF and NATO in Afghanistan. Pakistan had already alerted the international community that improper disposal of American leftover weaponry could enable terrorists to acquire it. It has further warned that these arms pose a threat not only to Pakistan, but those terrorists will use them in attacks against the interests of other countries as well. Now, the recovery of the arsenal from the militants in recent attacks, which included RPG-7, AK-74, M-4, and M-16/A4 rifles, all of American origin, indicates that a worst-case scenario has become a reality. The availability of these weapons has escalated terrorist threats, making militants more lethal in Pakistan, and the world is experiencing a domino effect of the situation emerging from Afghanistan.
According to the data collected and analyzed for the GTI Report 2024, Pakistan is the 4th most terrorism-affected country in the world. As Afghanistan ranked sixth in the world, Pakistan became the worst-hit country in South Asia. However, the report did not consider violent incidents involving the Afghan Taliban, treating them as a state authority; therefore, Afghanistan’s position is debatable. Ironically, the Afghan Taliban’s success in forming a government in Kabul has re-energized militants and all terrorist outfits view it as a way to revamp terrorism. Moreover, the GTI report profiled every country separately for the increase in terrorism, and it did not research cross-regional links among terrorist outfits to evaluate Afghanistan’s role in the surge in the lethality of terrorist attacks in the world. Pakistan had told the UNSC that the interim Afghan government is responsible for the resurgence of TTP attacks in Pakistan. It has further warned that TTP is an Al-Qaeda-backed terrorist organization, and its unchecked activities in Afghanistan would escalate global terrorist threats as well.
A report from the UNSC Analytical Support to Sanctions Monitoring Team on Al-Qaeda and ISIS corroborated Pakistan’s security institutions’ findings. According to UN research, the Afghan Taliban are providing financial assistance to the TTP as well as paying $50,000 to Noor Wali Mehsud. According to the findings of the UN research group, Afghan Taliban members consider it a religious duty to participate in the TTP’s attacks. The Afghan Taliban provided it with a huge cache of American leftover weaponry and manpower for violence. The report also revealed that TTP is working closely with Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Afghanistan to further complicate Pakistan’s threats. Al-Qaeda has established eight camps in Afghanistan, and its Kunar camp is training suicide bombers for the TTP. It gifted some vehicles to the TTP for the safety of militant leaders, and its militant commander, Hakeem Al-Masri, is ensuring full support for the terrorist activities of the TTP in Pakistan.
Against this backdrop, Pakistan is perturbed by the Afghan Taliban’s lack of cooperation over TTP and is withdrawing support for it. It needs to put pressure on the Afghan Taliban to check the activities of TTP militants in Afghanistan; therefore, it has asked the UNSC to investigate the TTP’s financial resources in Afghanistan for supporting 50 thousand militants and their dependents.
In a realist paradigm, states are prime actors in contemporary international relations and giving importance to non-state actors over them is not a reasonable strategy. It is a compulsion for the interim Afghan government to choose Pakistan over TTP in order to coexist in the world. Otherwise, international recognition should remain a far-fetched dream for them. According to the GTI report, violent conflicts are the primary driver of terrorism, and the increase in attacks has exacerbated them. Unfortunately, some members of the interim Afghan government have resorted to war rhetoric against Pakistan, which should also be alarming for the world. It warrants the immediate intervention of the international community, as tension over TTP could lead to a limited war on the Pak-Afghan border. Such a scenario would be detrimental to international peace in light of global terrorist threats.
In order to maintain international peace, the international community should pressurize the interim Afghan government to dismantle anti-Pakistan terrorist networks. Authorities should arrest militants and hand them over to Pakistan. Only this course of action would curb terrorist attacks in Pakistan, and a visible decrease in violence would put Pak-Afghan relations back on track. Most importantly, it would contain the domino effect in the world’s resurgence of terrorist threats.
—The writer, holding an M.Phil in IR from Quaid-e-Azam University, is a contributing columnist specializing in issues related to violent extremism and militancy.
