Pakistan’s PM urges Taliban administration to cut alleged support for terrorist militants

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar demanded Wednesday that the Taliban government extradite fugitive militants who are sheltering in Afghanistan and plotting terrorist attacks against his country.

Kakar told a nationally televised news conference that his country had experienced “a 60% increase in terror incidents and a 500% rise in suicide bombings” since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul two years ago, killing nearly 2,300 Pakistanis.

He asserted the bloodshed was being carried out by “Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, terrorists” from their bases in Afghanistan.

Kakar said that despite repeated assurances, de facto Afghan authorities failed to halt TTP-led cross-border attacks effectively. “Instead, clear evidence of enabling terrorism also emerged in some instances.”

He said Pakistan has persistently shared details and a list of wanted militant leaders with Afghan authorities through high-level multiple official engagements and even asked them “bluntly to choose between Pakistan and the TTP.” But Kabul did not deliver on its counterterrorism pledges, he added.

Taliban officials rejected Kakar’s allegations, saying their government is not responsible for maintaining peace in Pakistan, nor is it behind the insecurity in the neighboring country.