The Taliban have transferred the bodies of 50 Afghan fighters affiliated with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to a hospital in eastern Afghanistan after they were killed in clashes with the Pakistani military, security sources said.
The bodies were taken on Saturday to the central hospital of Paktika province in the city of Sharan, escorted by Taliban fighters in military vehicles. Images obtained by Afghanistan International showed ambulances carrying the bodies.
The fighters were killed earlier this month in Pakistan’s Sambaza area of Balochistan, near the Afghan border. On 11 August, Pakistan’s military announced it had killed 50 TTP members in operations there and seized weapons, ammunition and explosives.
Sources said about 90 percent of those killed were Afghans from the Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction of the TTP, which had crossed into Pakistan to attack security forces. The group is regarded as one of the most active anti-Pakistan factions and was previously identified as a military wing of the TTP. It has carried out multiple deadly attacks against Pakistani forces.
Earlier reports indicated that the bodies would be handed over to the families in various Afghan provinces. The Taliban have not commented publicly on the transfers.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban of sheltering militant groups, including the TTP, and has urged them to take concrete action. The Taliban deny the charge, insisting Afghan soil is not used against other countries.
At the UN Security Council earlier this month, Pakistan’s envoy Asim Iftikhar Ahmad warned that terrorist groups based in Afghanistan, particularly the TTP, which is believed to have around 6,000 fighters, pose the most immediate threat to Pakistan’s national security.
UN experts have also reported that the Taliban continue to provide a permissive environment for foreign terrorist groups in Afghanistan, which they said threatens the wider security of Central Asia and beyond.
