Pakistani Taliban: Foreign Aid Groups ‘Unacceptable’

With Govt Targeting Domestic Charities, Will Taliban Turn on Foreign Charities?

Speaking today in a telephone interview with the Associated Press, a spokesman for a Pakistani Taliban group condemned the various foreign aid groups setting up shop in Pakistan to contend with the massive humanitarian crisis, calling them “unacceptable.”

Though he didn’t directly threaten any specific groups, he invited people to “draw their own conclusions” about what the militants would do about the unacceptable presences and such groups, both government and NGO based, are gearing up for possible attacks.

Which is probably even a bigger problem than normal considering that the Pakistani government is already threatening to target the mostly religious domestic charity groups and charge their members as “terrorists.”

The ongoing flooding has proven an enormous humanitarian challenge, and the Pakistani government’s response has been extremely limited. If the government shuts down the domestic aid groups and the Taliban shuts down the foreign aid groups, the refugees from the crisis could quickly find themselves with no place to turn.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.