ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s caretaker top minister claimed on Monday that U.S. military equipment left behind all the way through the American withdrawal from Afghanistan has fallen into militant hands and in the long run made its technique to the Pakistani Taliban.
The equipment — which incorporates all kinds of things, from evening imaginative and prescient goggles to firearms — is now “emerging as a new challenge” for Islamabad because it has enhanced the preventing features of the Pakistani Taliban, Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar stated.
The Pakistani Taliban, referred to as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, have over the last months intensified assaults on Pakistan’s safety forces. They are a separate militant team however an best friend of the Afghan Taliban.
The Taliban overran Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops had been in the closing weeks in their chaotic pullout from the rustic after twenty years of struggle. In the face of the Taliban sweep, the U.S.-backed and skilled Afghan military crumbled.
There is no particular information on how a lot U.S. equipment was once left behind — however the Taliban seized U.S.-supplied firepower, improving weapons, ammunition, helicopters and different trendy military equipment from Afghan forces who surrendered it. Though nobody is aware of the precise worth, U.S. protection officers have showed it is important.
Speaking to a choose team of reporters at his place of business Monday in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, Kakar didn’t supply any proof to give a boost to his allegation or without delay link the Afghan Taliban and the TTP. He stated there was once a wish to undertake a “coordinated approach” to tackling the problem of the leftover equipment.
Kakar additionally didn’t criticize the Afghan Taliban — Islamabad has attempted to succeed in out and act as an interlocutor between the global group and the brand new rulers in Kabul, who’ve been ostracized for the cruel edicts they imposed since their takeover.
However, two safety officers in Islamabad instructed The Associated Press that the TTP both purchased the equipment from the Afghan Taliban, or was once given it as an best friend. The officers spoke on situation of anonymity to speak about the topic.
The Pakistani Taliban have additionally launched statements and video clips in fresh months, claiming they possess, for instance, weapons with laser and thermal sighting methods.
TTP warring parties now goal Pakistani troops from a distance, whilst sooner than their most effective guns had been AK-47 attack rifles, one of the most officers stated, with out elaborating.
Still, Pakistani safety forces will proceed to struggle militants “to defend our home, children, mosques and places of worship,” Kakar said.
Kakar, 52, was sworn in last month as Pakistan’s youngest prime minister to head a caretaker government. His Cabinet will run day-to-day affairs until the next parliamentary elections. The vote, which was to be held in October or November, is likely to be delayed until at least January 2024 as Pakistan’s elections oversight body says it needs time to redraw constituencies to reflect the latest census results.
Kakar ruled out any talks between the government and the TTP since the militants unilaterally broke off a cease-fire last November.
Since the Taliban takeover next door, Islamabad says TTP fighters have increasingly been given shelter by the Afghan Taliban, straining relations between Islamabad and Kabul.
Pakistan became a key ally of Washington in its war against terror after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. This majority Muslim country is currently facing one of the worst economic crises even as its political turmoil deepens.
At his news conference, Kakar also stressed that all political parties — including the Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf opposition party of now imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan — would be allowed to participate in the upcoming elections.
“We are here just to assist electoral process,” Kakar said.
He did indirectly point out Khan, who is now not eligible to run in the elections as he is serving a three-year jail time period for corruption. Khan, who was once ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022, stays the rustic’s main opposition determine.
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