Afghan Taliban react to Rana Sanaullah’s TTP statement

• Taliban term Rana Sanaullah's remarks "provocative".
• Say Afghanistan wants to have good relations with Pakistan.
• Militant attacks increased by 44% in December, PICSS report.

KABUL: Reacting to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s statement about targeting Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideouts inside Afghanistan, the interim Taliban government Sunday said that it would not allow anyone to attack the Islamic Emirate and ask Pakistan to share its reservations with Kabul.

The interior minister, in an interview with a Pakistani news channel, had said, "Islamabad may target the TTP in Afghanistan if Kabul does not take action to dismantle them".

"When these problems arise, we first ask Afghanistan, our brotherly Islamic nation, to eliminate their hideouts and hand over those individuals to us, but if that doesn't happen then what you mentioned is possible," Sanaullah said.

Pakistan has witnessed a sharp rise in terrorism incidents, especially in Khyber Pkahtwnka and Balochistan, during the past couple of months after the TTP announced to end ceasefire with Pakistan.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto had also hinted at direct action against militants if the Afghan government fails to rein in TTP.

Responding to Sanaullah, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said, they would not allow anyone to attack Afghanistan.

The spokesperson stated that Afghanistan wants to have good relations with Pakistan and that its officials should use caution when speaking.

"No country has the right to attack another nation's territory. There is no legislation in the world that permits such a transgression. If anyone has any worries, they should share them with the Islamic Emirate since it has sufficient forces and can take action,” Mujahid maintained.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said that the remarks of the Pakistani official are baseless and provocative and that any problem or dispute should be resolved through dialogue.

Terrorism in 2022

According to the statistics released by an Islamabad-based independent thin- tank, Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), the number of militant attacks increased by 44% in December compared to November 2022.

In December, the militants carried out 49 attacks in which 56 people were killed including 32 security forces personnel and 17 civilians.

In these attacks, 81 people also got injured including 31 security forces personnel and 50 civilians.

The report added that December saw the highest number of militant attacks in a single month in 2022.

The PICSS data also shows that the year 2022 saw a 28% increase in terror attacks compared with 2021 which is also the highest during the last five years.