NEW YORK: In an interview with Newsweek, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram warned of potential Taliban defections to ISIS-K if the current economic woes in Afghanistan continue.
He specifically named insurgent groups such as the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), but also the regional ISIS-Khorasan branch, called ISIS-K or ISIL-K, saying that sometimes these groups worked together against Pakistan’s interests.
Akram further warned that other groups such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) also needed to be combated, but that such efforts on the part of the Taliban would be difficult to achieve as long as the government found itself short on income.
“We have to deal with this,” Ambassador Akram said, “and we are determined to deal with it internally.”
And while he said, “we’ve dealt with this in the past,” the diplomat warned that new challenges have emerged in trying to influence the Taliban-led government and that it was in their immediate interest to take on all of these groups.
“Now we have a situation in Afghanistan where the Taliban need to be convinced to deal with all of the terrorist movements, not only ISIL-K, which they are fighting, but others,” Akram said.
“We understand the situation, but we have to find an effective strategy for dealing with it.”
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari recently spoke with his Afghan counterpart, Amir Khan Muttaq, offering his condolences over the attack near the foreign ministry in Kabul.
