By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A United Nations Security Council report has dismissed the Taliban’s insistence that no terrorist groups are using Afghan soil to launch cross-border attacks, labelling the claim “not credible” and highlighting growing fears among neighbouring countries that Afghanistan has become a hub for regional instability.
The findings, detailed in the sixteenth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, come more than four years after the Taliban seized power in August 2021, amid persistent international worries about the country’s security dynamics. “The de facto authorities continue to deny that any terrorist groups have a footprint in or operate from its territory. That claim is not credible,” the report stated.
Under the 2020 Doha Agreement, the Taliban committed to ensuring that Afghanistan would not serve as a base for threats against other nations. Since regaining control, the group has mounted aggressive campaigns against the Islamic State-Khorasan Province, known as ISIL-K, but its approach to other militant organisations has drawn sharp scrutiny in successive UN evaluations.
The latest assessment asserted that “a wide range of member states consistently report that ISIL-K, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al Qaeda, the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIM/TIP), Jamaat Ansarullah, Ittihadul Mujahideen Pakistan, and others are present in Afghanistan. Some groups have used or are continuing to use Afghanistan to plan and prepare external attacks.”
Al Qaeda, according to the report, maintains intimate links with the Taliban and a sustained presence across multiple provinces. Though its operations remain discreet, UN monitors described a lenient environment that enables the group to conduct training and restructuring. In contrast, ISIL-K stands as the Taliban’s chief rival. Taliban offensives have eroded its hold on territory, yet the group has demonstrated resilience through strikes within Afghanistan and beyond.
The report identified the TTP as posing the gravest immediate risk to regional stability, benefiting from robust backing within Taliban ranks and using Afghan safe havens for its activities. “Taliban authorities continue to deny and deflect responsibility for failing to restrain TTP,” the document said. “Within the Taliban there are varying degrees of sympathy for and allegiance with TTP.” It added: “Some senior members increasingly view TTP as a liability, unnecessarily disrupting and antagonising relations with Pakistan, while others remain supportive of it.”
Evaluating the prospects of the Taliban breaking with the TTP amid pressure from Pakistan, the report concluded: “Given the historical ties, the Taliban are unlikely to confront or act against TTP.” It further noted, “Even should they wish to, they may lack the ability to do so.”
The TTP has executed “numerous high-profile attacks in Pakistan from Afghan soil,” the report said, positioning it as the central obstacle in Kabul-Islamabad relations. “The number of TTP attacks in Pakistan has been increasing throughout 2025,” according to the assessment. “By some estimates, there have already been more than 600 attacks in Pakistan in 2025.” Many of these operations were sophisticated, the report explained: “Many attacks have been complex in nature, involving multiple, coordinated attackers using methods such as vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, combined with teams of suicide attackers on foot.” It also observed that “a majority of those conducting suicide bombings in Pakistan were reported to be Afghans.”
Pakistan has repeatedly charged the Taliban with sheltering TTP militants, whom the UN report estimated at around 6,000. These fighters are said to reside in the Afghan provinces of Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktika and Paktia, with the group’s leader, Noor Wali Mehsud, reportedly based in Kabul.
One unnamed member state informed monitors that Mehsud’s family receives a monthly stipend of three million afghanis, approximately $43,000, from the Taliban. The controversy surrounding the TTP’s Afghan presence has deeply frayed once-close ties between the neighbours, escalating into military clashes along the border.
“These attacks have led to cross-border military confrontation, causing a number of casualties, as well as disruptions to bilateral trade,” the report said. “At the time of writing, in addition to the loss of life, the closure of border crossings with Pakistan is estimated to cost the Afghan economy around $1 million per day.”
The monitoring team also documented the TTP’s broadening scope. “In January, TTP issued a new directive expanding targets of its attacks to include military-owned businesses,” thereby “significantly escalating its focus on the economic interests of the military of Pakistan and of Chinese enterprises in Pakistan.”
The report further highlighted alliances between TTP and other militant factions. Amid the pervasive militant activity, the assessment acknowledged certain advances in counterterrorism efforts, particularly by Pakistan. “There have also been a number of high-profile arrests by the Pakistani authorities, such as the arrest of an ISIL-K spokesperson, Sultan Aziz Azam, on 16 May 2025,” it said. “Overall, the capability of ISIL-K has been degraded as a result of counter-terrorism operations by the de facto authorities and Pakistan,” the report continued, pointing out that “the arrest in mid-2025 by Turkish and Pakistani authorities of Ozgur Altun, known as Abu Yasir al-Turki, a key figure in the group’s media and logistical operations, may have contributed to the suspension of ‘Voice of Khorasan.’”
Regarding Al Qaeda, the document reported: “In March 2025, Osama Mahmoud was formally declared ‘emir’ of AQIS. He comes from Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.” The report’s stark appraisal underscores the enduring challenges in stabilising Afghanistan and its ripple effects across the region, as the Taliban grapples with internal divisions and external demands to curb extremist elements.
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