Pakistan envoy warns Afghan safe havens emboldened BLA, TTP after Taliban takeover
Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad Photo: APP
THE UNITED NATIONS:
A senior Pakistani diplomat has called on the UN Security Council to “act expeditiously” to designate the “foreign-funded” Balochistan Liberation Army as a terrorist group subject to its sanctions regime, established by Resolution 1267 in 1999, as he reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to combat and eradicate terrorists on its soil.
Speaking at a Council debate on ‘Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts’, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, said terrorist groups such as Fitna al Khawarij (TTP) and Fitna al Hindustan (BLA) and its Majeed Brigade got a “new lease of life” after the Taliban takeover in Kabul.
The United States has already labeled the Balochistan Liberation Army a “foreign terrorist” organization.
“We hope that the Council will act quickly to designate the BLA under the 1267 sanctions regime, thereby granting the listing request that is currently under consideration,” he told the 15-member Council.
Ahmad said the international community must address the contemporary terrorist threat through a “collective, comprehensive and coordinated response,” including through the balanced implementation of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS).
“We must effectively combat terrorist threats from Afghanistan,” he said, adding that terrorist groups such as the BLA and TTP were operating from Afghan soil with the “active support of our eastern neighbor.”
As documented by the Council’s monitoring team, he added, the Afghan de facto authorities (DFA) provide a permissive environment for a range of terrorist groups, including the TTP; Al-Qaeda, ISIL-K (Daesh) remain active with an external focus, and ETIM/TIP members move freely within Afghanistan.
“These terrorist groups pose a threat not only to Pakistan, but to the entire region and beyond. Recent terrorist activities in Central Asia, near the Afghan border, have confirmed earlier warnings,” the Pakistani envoy said, adding: “It has become imperative to prevent the billions of dollars worth of sophisticated weapons and equipment left behind by foreign forces in Afghanistan from falling into the hands of terrorists.
He said the BLA claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks in several places in Balochistan over the past weekend, which resulted in the martyrdom of 48 innocent civilians, including 5 women and 3 children.
“As a frontline state,” he said, Pakistan suffered more than 90,000 casualties and significant economic losses, citing the country’s role in dismantling Al-Qaeda and fighting ISIS-Khorasan province.
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Ahmad also highlighted the need to hold accountable external destabilizing actors who support, finance and arm these groups, including their proxies in Afghanistan.
“There must be zero tolerance for state terrorism – of the type seen in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and other situations of foreign occupation,” he said.
“The occupation and its accompanying repression cannot be disguised as counter-terrorism aimed at suppressing the legitimate, internationally recognized and UN-sanctioned struggles of people against foreign occupation and for their inalienable right to self-determination in accordance with relevant UN resolutions and international legitimacy. »
In this context, Ambassador Asim Ahmad called on the United Nations counterterrorism architecture and sanctions regimes to ensure that they adequately respond to current challenges and represent a fair, just and comprehensive mechanism to combat the global scourge of terrorism.
“Until now, anti-terrorism policies have only targeted followers of a single religion: Muslims,” he stressed. “There is a need to encompass new and emerging forms of terrorism, including white supremacists, far-right extremists, violent nationalists, fascists, fascist, xenophobic, Islamophobic and anti-Muslim groups, as well as similar ideologies in various parts of the world. »
“Terrorism can only be defeated through unity and cooperation, without any double standards or discrimination, addressing the root causes and preventing its exploitation for political purposes,” the Pakistani envoy added.
Opening the debate, Alexandre Zouev, Acting Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, told the Council that Daesh and its affiliated terrorist groups continue to adapt and demonstrate resilience despite sustained counter-terrorism pressure, as he presented the Secretary-General’s latest biannual report on the threat that ISIL/Daesh poses to international peace and security.
Daesh and its affiliates continue to expand in parts of Africa, particularly West Africa and the Sahel, with the Islamic State West Africa Province further strengthening its presence in the Lake Chad Basin region, he said. The group remains active in Iraq and Syria, while ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K) continues to pose a major threat in Afghanistan and beyond, having claimed responsibility for the January 19 terrorist attack at a Kabul restaurant.
Zouev said AI and other technologies are increasingly being used to fuel radicalization and recruitment, particularly targeting youth and children, while commercial satellite communications systems are being leveraged for secure, low-cost communications.
Turning to the priorities identified by the Secretary-General, he highlighted three areas of concern: the dire conditions in camps and detention centers in northeast Syria and the need for safe, voluntary and dignified repatriation; the deterioration of the security situation in certain regions of Africa, which requires political ownership and coordinated regional responses; and the need for whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches based on the rule of law, human rights and inclusive, nationally owned prevention.
“The intensifying threat posed by Daesh and its affiliates, despite significant national and international efforts, underscores the imperative to maintain global cooperation in the fight against terrorism,” Zouev said. This year, the ninth review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy provides Member States with an opportunity to reaffirm their commitments, assess progress made since 2023 and address emerging and evolving threats.
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Natalia Gherman, executive director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, said that in 2025, the Directorate had conducted assessment visits to Austria, Cameroon, Chad, Hungary, Malta, Norway and Somalia, and was leading a visit to Tajikistan this week. “We work closely with each member state we visit” to provide tailored support and recommendations, she said, also describing a recent gathering of countries in Kenya aimed at helping combat increasingly sophisticated use of the internet by terrorists.
Among other recent work, German said the Directorate released its fourth thematic summary of gaps, focused on Africa, and supports international efforts to disrupt the use of virtual assets and new financial technologies for terrorist purposes. In line with its analytical mandate to identify issues, trends and new developments, it published a report on threats to critical infrastructure in partnership with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). “The threat posed by the terrorist use of unmanned aerial systems has become a priority for many member states,” she said, also citing the increasingly advanced digital methods now used to exploit children.
