Al-Qaeda has returned to Afghanistan and is re-establishing suicide bomber training camps which could prove a threat to Christians in Pakistan.
A new report for the UN Security Council also reveals that the Afghan Taliban is now paying monthly allowances to al-Qaeda fighters.
The Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution says the al-Qaeda training camps in Eastern Afghanistan, where those suicide bombers are being schooled, also include members of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), more commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban.
TTP has repeatedly targeted Christians in Pakistan in the past, including the 2013 suicide bombing of All Saints Church in Peshawar which killed more than 120 Christians and wounded around 250 others. It also claimed responsibility for the 2016 bombing of the Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park in Lahore, where many Christians were celebrating Easter, which left more than 70 dead and injured hundreds more. The UN report estimates the Pakistani Taliban has 4-6,000 fighters in Afghanistan, which now provides a safe haven from which it may attack targets in Pakistan.
Another recent report, by the Pakistan-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies, found that, since the Taliban regained power in August 2021, the number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan had risen by 73% and the number killed jumped by 138%. Most attacks took place in the provinces bordering Afghanistan.
The Director of a Christian humanitarian organisation with long experience of working in Afghanistan, who wishes to remain anonymous, believes these training camps now pose a major threat to several million Christians in Pakistan. This is particularly the case in places such as Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province which borders Afghanistan, where Christians have previously been targeted by the Pakistani Taliban. His team is also asking for urgent prayer for Christians in Pakistan as terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is now threatening suicide attacks against churches in response to the recent burning of the Quran in Sweden.
