A senior leader of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who was also its former spokesperson, Mohammad Khalid Balti aka Mohammad Khalid Khorasani, was shot dead by unknown gunmen in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
Khalid Balti belonged to Gilgit-Baltistan and joined the TTP and shifted to Miranshah, North Waziristan.
He was appointed spokesperson of the TTP and then shifted to Afghanistan along with many other TTP fighters after the Pakistan Army launched a massive military offensive “Zarb-e-Azb” against all the militant organizations in North Waziristan in 2014.
It is not yet clear who killed Balti, who was one of the core members of the terrorist outfit and was still involved in planning and coordinating terrorist attacks in different areas of Pakistan.
Killing of a high-profile TTP leader, who claimed some of the major terrorist attacks in Pakistan including the one on innocent school children and their teachers in the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar on 16 December 2014, suicide bombing on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda and two other terrorist attacks on Kamra airbase and Karachi airport, is a significant development.
The development once again confirms presence of most-wanted terrorists on Afghan soil and their involvement in planning and execution of attacks inside Pakistan.
Pakistan repeatedly provided full details about the presence of such elements in Afghanistan and their anti-Pakistan activities to the previous regime in Afghanistan and occupation forces but no worthwhile action was taken against them.
This confirmed the widely-held belief that Pakistan was victim of proxy terrorism and some terrorist outfits were being used by forces hostile to Pakistan to undermine its security and economic interests.
Unfortunately, their activities continue despite a change of government in Kabul and firm commitments given by the Taliban that they would not allow use of Afghan soil for activities against any other country.
The splinter groups were now trying to consolidate their strength and their activities have intensified over the last few years as is evident from a substantial increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Government extended an olive branch to the TTP by entering into a dialogue with the terrorist organization despite stiff opposition by many circles in the country but the process could not produce the desired results due to unacceptable demands by the TTP.
In this backdrop, Pakistan should take up the issue of presence of a sizeable number of terrorists in Afghanistan with the Taliban government on a priority basis urging Kabul to shun its dubious attitude and move firmly against such elements.
