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Afghan NSA warns of possible influx of Taliban recruits from Pakistan
Afghan National Security Advisor (NSA) Hamdullah Mohib said Friday that as many as 15,000 militants could enter Afghanistan from Pakistan to fight the Afghan Security and Defense Forces (ANSDF).
Speaking in an interview with Sky News on Friday, Mohib stated that Pakistan has been a safe haven for the Taliban and that the group has been using Pakistani Madrasas, religious schools, to recruit fighters.
“The Taliban have had safe havens in Pakistan throughout this period they enjoyed their leaders living there at peace and in Pakistan; Their injured were treated in Pakistani hospitals, they had military and emotional support and financial support from elements within the Pakistani military establishment and it continues to be the case,” Mohib stated.
“Every year the Taliban were defeated in Afghanistan but they had an opportunity to recuperate to re-recruit people from Madrasas in Pakistan and bring them back the next year.”
“This year, we estimate that ten thousand fighters have come in from Pakistani madrasas to fight in Afghanistan this fighting season and their intelligence shows that they could be as many as 15 000 more new recruits coming towards Afghanistan.
Referring to the fall of districts to the Taliban, Mohib stated that it was difficult for the Afghan forces to supply remote outposts and districts.
“Indeed, the vacuum created by the withdrawal of foreign air power made it very difficult for us to supply some of those remote outposts and districts by air so it had a cascading effect but none of the territories the Taliban has taken is permanent the Afghan people themselves are rising against the Taliban in their own villages and districts,” he said,
“So much of this progress that the Taliban are celebrating is very temporary,” Mohib noted.
Meanwhile, the negotiation teams of the Afghan government and the Taliban last week agreed to continue the stalled talks in Doha, Qatar.
Mohib, however, reiterated that the Taliban has no intention of bringing peace to Afghanistan.
“We haven’t yet seen the Taliban negotiate in earnest; they’re sticking to a very rigid point and want to use the negotiating as a point to further their military agenda and lobby for their military purposes. So far there hasn’t been any movement from the Taliban that could be classified as genuine efforts for peace,” Mohib said.
Mohib added that the Taliban, so far, has not broken ties with the “terrorist groups”, a claim that has been constantly rejected by the group.
“It would be impossible for them to separate themselves from these groups…while their management may be different their management structures they all rely on those very basic fundamental, fundamentalistic ideologies that give them the base of operations and they cooperate very closely as an example the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is an affiliate of the Taliban but it has pledged allegiance to Daesh yet they collaborate very closely so it’s a collaboration of these three groups in destabilizing Afghanistan and creating a ground for uh terrorism to flourish.”
“We cannot really separate them and put them in separate categories and for the Taliban to say that they have severed ties with any group has been proven wrong by the Afghan government several times by arresting Al-Qaeda members and operating against Al-Qaeda elements in Taliban controlled areas,” Mohib said.
A tripartite meeting between the delegations of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was held in Kabul with the aim of connecting North Asia to South Asia and reducing transit and transportation costs among these three countries, the Ministry of Trade and Commerce said in a statement.
In this meeting, an agreement was reached on the creation of a joint technical committee to continue the talks.
This tripartite meeting was held under the leadership of Nooruddin Azizi, the Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, Vice President of Turkmenistan and Srik Zhumangarin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan.
Earlier, a bilateral meeting was held between the delegation of the Islamic Emirate and Turkmenistan. The ministry of commerce said the participants of the meeting discussed the construction of a large joint logistics center in Torghondi, the trilateral transit agreement between the IEA, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, the expansion of Afghanistan’s railway, solving issues related to Afghan transit and export goods, and a number of other commercial issues.
Acting Minister of National Defense Mohammad Yaqub Mujahid has said that no destructive groups including Daesh have physical presence in Afghanistan, adding the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) will not allow anyone to pose threat to any country in the region from the Afghan soil.
Mujahid made the remarks in a meeting with a delegation from Malaysia in Kabul on Thursday.
According to a statement released by the Ministry of Defense, Mujahid highlighted Malaysia’s “good treatment” of Afghan refugees and its long-standing relations with Afghanistan, and said that Malaysia is a powerful Islamic country and visits should increase.
He added that with the establishment of the Islamic Emirate, occupation and war ended in Afghanistan, and the country is fully secure.
Based on the statement, the Malaysian delegation called Afghanistan a friendly country and while emphasizing on comprehensive cooperation, it assured that what they have seen in Afghanistan will be shared with the authorities of their country.
The European Union signed an agreement worth 17 million euros with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to improve access to basic services, increased economic opportunities and protection for Afghans on the move and their host communities in Afghanistan.
The needs of women and girls are a particular focus of the programme, EU said in a statement released on Thursday.
The statement noted that from January 2023 until April 2024, over 1.5 million Afghans returned from Pakistan and Iran.
“I am deeply moved by the hardship returnees face when being deported to Afghanistan. In a country suffering from poverty and climate change, and in a city that just saw devastating earthquakes, this truly is a crisis within a crisis.”, said Peteris Ustubs, Director for the Middle East, Asia and Pacific of the European Commission’s Department for International Partnerships during the signing ceremony at the IOM transit centre in Herat.
Raffaella Iodice, EU Chargée d’Affaires a.i. to Afghanistan, added “The solidarity of the Afghan people towards their brothers and sisters is an inspiration. We must assure that communities hosting and helping new arrivals are supported. The partnership with IOM ensures access to essential services and provides protection for Afghan returnees and their host communities. As women and girls can be particularly affected, we make sure that all members of society can benefit”.
“IOM’s continued partnership with the EU has been critical in enabling our teams to reach hundreds of thousands of Afghan returnees and other vulnerable communities in the country”, said IOM Afghanistan Chief of Mission, Maria Moita. “Thanks to this renewed commitment, we will be able to focus on addressing the immense challenges in the areas of return and contribute to reintegration, social cohesion, and longer-term solutions for those communities.”
This additional contribution is part of a 5-year programme that is being implemented across Afghanistan and in four countries in the region. It builds on the EU’s previous support to IOM to improve the wellbeing of Afghans forced to return to the country, EU said.
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