A US State Department report has warned that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) aims to push the government of Pakistan out of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and establish Sharia by waging a terrorist campaign against the military and state, Pakistan-based Dawn newspaper reported.
According to the 2021 Country Reports on Terrorism, the TTP uses the tribal belt along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to train and deploy its operatives.
As per the US State Department report, TTP draws ideological guidance from Al Qaeda, while elements of AQ rely in part on TTP for safe haven in the Pashtun areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
"This arrangement has given TTP access to both AQ's global terrorist network and its members' operational expertise."
According to the report, Pakistan "experienced significant terrorist activity" during the year in review, i.e. 2021.
Underlining the link between terrorism and lack of economic activities, the report points out that "the United States provides assistance to support trade and economic growth" in Pakistan, Dawn reported.
The US assistance to Pakistan includes partnering with US businesses, civil society, and the regions bordering Afghanistan.
"This assistance is intended to improve the lives of the Pakistani people and support US objectives," the report explains.
"The United States continues to support people-to-people exchanges to alleviate misunderstandings and complications in the bilateral relationship," the report read, according to Dawn.
Meanwhile, US Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday said that a strong America won't be the world's ATM. She said that a weak America pays the bad guys and that hundreds of millions have been paid in aid to Pakistan, Iraq, and Zimbabwe in 2022 alone.
"A weak America pays the bad guys: Hundreds of millions to Pakistan, Iraq, and Zimbabwe last year alone. A strong America won't be the world's ATM," Haley tweeted on Tuesday.
Haley recently said that if voted to power, she will cut every cent in foreign aid for countries that hate the US. This includes China, Pakistan and other adversaries as "a strong America doesn't pay off the bad guys".
"I will cut every cent in foreign aid for countries that hate us. A strong America doesn't pay off the bad guys. A proud America doesn't waste our people's hard-earned money. And the only leaders who deserve our trust are those who stand up to our enemies and stand beside our friends," Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina and former US ambassador to the UN, wrote in an op-ed for New York Post.
According to Haley, America spent USD 46 billion on foreign aid last year. That's more than any other country by far. Taxpayers deserve to know where that money is going and what it's doing. They will be shocked to find that much of it goes to fund anti-American countries and causes.
( With inputs from ANI )
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