JeM, LeT maintain training camps in Afghanistan: UN

United Nations: Pakistan-based terror groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, led by 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed, maintain their training camps in some provinces of Afghanistan and some of them are directly under the Taliban control, according to a UN report.

The 13th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team cites a UN Member State as saying that Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Deobandi group ideologically closer to the Taliban “maintains eight training camps in Nangarhar, three of which are directly under Taliban control.”

The report said that Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Deobandi group led by Masood Azhar, is ideologically closer to the Taliban. Qari Ramazan is the newly appointed head of JeM in Afghanistan. It added that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is described in the previous Monitoring Team reports as having provided finance and training expertise to Taliban operations.

In January 2022, a Taliban delegation visited a training camp used by LeT in the Haska Mena district of Nangarhar. “The group was said to maintain three camps in Kunar and Nangarhar. Previous LeT members have included Aslam Farooqi and Ejaz Ahmad Ahangar (a.k.a. Abu Usman al-Kashmiri), both of whom joined ISIL-K,” the report said.

The 13th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of the Taliban Sanctions Committee is the first report since the August 15 takeover of Kabul by the Taliban.

‘Unfounded’: Taliban refutes UN report

The Taliban refuted the report by the UN stating the presence of foreign fighters in Afghanistan. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan asserted that the UN report claiming the ‘existence and operation of foreign groups’ in the country is ‘unfounded.’

“The fact remains that since the return to power of the Islamic Emirate, the world and the region have been prevented from facing any harm from Afghanistan, and the Afghan Government has consistently worked for the last nine months to build an environment of trust with the regional and world countries,” a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan read.

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