Taliban confronts Islamabad, says Pakistani generals looted American weapons for business

The Taliban government in Kabul has advised neighbour Pakistan to give priority to the peace process instead of taking to war for its security problems. Afghan Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir reportedly told Pakistan special envoy for Afghanistan, Asif Ali Durrani, that because of the bitter experiences of wars in Afghanistan, he would urge Pakistan to not use force.

Kabir is reported to have told Durrani that peace in Pakistan is also in the interest of Afghanistan which sees violence in Pakistan as a loss for Afghanistan also, considering that both are Muslim nations.

After a spate of terror attacks on the Pakistani Army in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which claimed the lives of at least 12 soldiers, a rattled Pakistan had rushed its special envoy Durrani to Kabul on Wednesday. Even as the envoy was holding talks with the Taliban, Pakistani security forces came under multiple attacks once again.

Pakistan, which has been unnerved by deadly attacks on its security forces, has been urging the Taliban government in Kabul to restrain the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and even threatened to launch cross-border strikes in Afghanistan against TTP camps. Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and even the Army chief General Asim Munir issued strong statements on the presence of TTP sanctuaries in Afghanistan recently.

However, just one day after the Pakistani envoy met with the Taliban government in Kabul, the TTP completely refuted Islamabad’s allegations about the use of American weapons and foreign fighters against Pakistani security forces.

In a dire message to Pakistan, which was once its secretive ally in the American War on Terror, the TTP says that its jihad in Pakistan is being run and funded by Pakistani Muslims.

Mohammad Khurasani, the TTP spokesperson, said that the organisation is carrying out jihad with the support of the Pakistani Muslims and the TTP is rapidly creating an Islamic society in the country. The statement added that the group is becoming bigger by the day because Pakistan’s Muslims are devoted to the cause of jihad.

In a bid to shift the blame from the Taliban government, ruling Afghanistan since August 2021, Khurasani said the TTP buys weapons locally with the financial support of the Pakistanis, adding that it had used these weapons earlier against the US forces in Afghanistan.

Blaming Pakistani security forces for the proliferation of American weapons in the region, Khurasani alleged in his statement that Pakistani army officials and secret agencies were found to be involved in selling American weapons and equipment which they used to loot from US containers traveling between Karachi and Afghanistan during the War on Terror.

The TTP statement even alleges that the Pakistan-based organisations would burn a few containers enroute to Afghanistan to make the Americans believe that the containers were attacked by the Taliban. The statement alleges that Pakistani generals made a big business by selling American weapons at inexpensive prices in the markets of Lahore and Peshawar, which eventually reached the TTP mujahideen.

In a separate meeting that Durrani had with Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, the latter assured the Pakistani envoy that Afghanistan does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and will not allow anyone to use Afghan soil against neighbors.

Tolo News reports that Muttaqi also called upon Pakistan to solve the problems of Afghan refugees and other Afghan detainees in Pakistan.