Peshawar: Pakistani security agencies are committing “atrocities” against people from Afghanistan, just like the “oppression” they have been carrying out against Pashtuns and Baloch for over 2 decades, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said today and asked the countrymen to stand up to such an establishment.
Slamming the Pakistani rulers, TTP said that on one hand, they talk about “brotherly relations” with Afghanistan but on the other hand, they indulge in atrocities against its citizens.
“How can these two things coexist,” the Islamist organisation asked in a statement issued by its spokesman Muhammad Khurasani.
The statement was referring to the news “being received that in the last few days the state forces (of Pakistan) have arrested hundreds of Afghan nationals in Karachi, saying that they may be involved in the recent attacks.”
The spokesman said the arrested Afghan citizens do not have even the “slightest connection” with TTP but they are poor people who work as daily labourers.
He further argued that “lately, when no attack has taken place in Karachi, then how can these people be involved in the attacks?”
Citing the past practice of the Pakistani security agencies, the TTP spokesman said they will now extract lakhs of rupees from the families of each individual Afghan arrested on various pretexts.
“For the last 20 years, the Pakistani security agencies have been carrying out such business (of extortion) with regard to Pastuns and Baloch. Probably it is no more meeting their needs and desires because of the rising inflation. So, they must be looking at Afghan citizens as new customers,” the TTP said.
“And at the same time, it is intended to annoy the neighbors (Afghans),” Khurasani said.
“Therefore, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan requests the people of the country (Pakistan) to stand up to liberate these oppressed people from the clutches of oppression and show proof of being a good neighbor (of Afghanistan),” he said.
Regarding the TTP’s ongoing campaign in Chitral and other areas, including the tribal areas, of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the spokesman said it is unreasonable to suggest that such large-scale operations can be carried out from Afghanistan, as alleged by Pakistan.
“Such large-scale and continuous operations are impossible from any other land,” he insisted.
Ever since the TTP launched the massive operations in Chitral district, bordering Afghanistan, on September 6, Pakistan has been alleging that the fighters and attacks are coming from Afghan land.
The Pakistan government has even raised the issue with Afghanistan’s rulers, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) or Taliban, which has rejected the claims of Islamabad.
