Terrorism

US brands TTP leader, al-Qaeda members as terrorists amid Afghanistan worries

By Salaam Times and AFP

A view of a damaged learning center in Kabul where a suicide bomber killed and injured dozens on September 30. [AFP]

A view of a damaged learning center in Kabul where a suicide bomber killed and injured dozens on September 30. [AFP]

The United States on Thursday (December 1) announced it was designating Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and South Asian al-Qaeda leaders as terrorists, vowing action as alarm grows over trends in Afghanistan.

Washington is concerned that terrorist groups could be using Afghanistan as a haven for training and operations.

The United States designated the number two of the TTP, Mufti Hazrat Deroji, also known as Qari Amjad. The TTP's 15-year campaign of violence has stepped up since last year, and earlier this week the group called off a shaky ceasefire agreed with the government and ordered its fighters to stage attacks across the country.

Since 2021, Pakistan has seen a 50% surge in militant attacks, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).

Deroji has overseen operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, one of two Pakistani border areas that have borne the brunt of violent attacks, say US officials. The other affected border area is Balochistan province.

AQIS leaders designated

The targeted insurgents include four leaders of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), a regional branch of the insurgent network, including self-styled AQIS "emir" Osama Mehmood.

The designations are "part of our relentless efforts to ensure that terrorists do not use Afghanistan as a platform for international terrorism", Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

"We will continue to use all relevant tools to uphold our commitment to see to it that international terrorists are not able to operate with impunity in Afghanistan," Blinken said.

The State Department and Treasury Department listed the four as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, making it a crime in the United States to engage in transactions with them and blocking any assets they have in the country.

Finding and killing terrorists

Even though the United States is no longer present in Afghanistan, it has kept its promise from mid-2021 to conduct "over the horizon" operations there if necessary to eliminate terrorists.

It kept its word on July 31, when it fired two missiles that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who had moved to Kabul.

Al-Zawahiri was living in Kabul even though the United States had received assurances that Afghanistan would not provide sanctuary to al-Qaeda. The terrorist group used Afghanistan as a haven for plotting the 9/11 attacks.

In September 2019, US and Afghan forces killed AQIS founder Asim Umar in a joint raid in Helmand province.

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The philosophy of Afghan Taliban and Pakistani Taliban is the same. And both of these groups are originated by Pakistan Intelligence Service (ISI). The mentioned agency was established in 1948 by Robert Cathum, a British-Australian general, whose aim is to weaken the process of modernity in the subcontinent of India and in Afghanistan. Pakistan's intelligence agency has directly and indirectly killed tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan, Kashmir, India and other parts of the world since the establishment of the so-called country called Pakistan. And they have done all these killings under the name of Islam and by the hands of their mercenaries whom they trained as Mujahid. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has set itself the goal of weakening and destroying the Pashtun-populated areas and in order to get money from America and the Western world, and ISI has hands behind its establishment. Death to Pakistan's sinister intelligence agency.

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The attack on the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, the attack on the leader of Hizb-e-Islami, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and the US sanctions on TTP leaders are all parts of a single series. Behind all this, I see the hand of a hypocritical country. Do you know who I mean? Who is it, not Russia, China, Britain, or Europe? The answer is Pakistan. On the one hand, Pakistan created the TTP group to kill the Pashtuns of Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas and to get money from America, and they killed the Pashtuns. On the other hand, they supported the Taliban group in Afghanistan, gave them safe places in their country, and gave them passports and identity cards. When the Taliban captured Kabul, the first person who came to Kabul was the Director of Pakistan's Intelligence, Faiz Hameed. He celebrated the capture of Kabul by their mercenaries, showed his dick to the world, especially to America, and said, look, we won you this way. I do not support the policies of the Taliban because there are too many idiots among them, but there is no doubt that there are also intelligent people among them. America and the rest of the world should sit down with those who understand the matter and negotiate with them. They should make the Taliban give women's rights, guarantee human rights and the rights of minorities and remove the guarantee of preventing any vandalism against the international community. When it comes to the TTP group, they are the assignees of Pakistan, forcing them to cross the Durand Line; wh

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