Journalist reveals which former general gifted TTP chief a bulletproof Lexus

Renowned journalist Azaz Syed on December 30 revealed on his YouTube channel "Talk SHOCK" that former spymaster Gen (retd) Faiz Hamid gifted a bulletproof Lexus car to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Noor Wali Mehsud in Kabul during Imran Khan's tenure.

According to Syed, Gen Faiz asked the TTP Chief to form better relations with Pakistan to which Mehsud replied: "You have made Pakistan into a prison [reference to fenced borders with India, Afghanistan and Iran]."

Azaz Syed revealed that Gen Faiz Hameed agreed to resettle TTP terrorists back into Pakistan in that particular meeting in Kabul where several high-ranking Afghan Taliban officials were present as well.

Gen Faiz, who was the chief of Pakistan's premier spy agency ISI at the time, asked the TTP chief about his preference for cars: "It is my wish to gift you a car, so tell me, which one do you like," he reportedly said. After that, Gen Faiz arranged a bulletproof car from Kabul for the TTP head.

According to Azaz Syed, another meeting was held the next day, but the TTP chief did not arrive in the gifted car. Gen Faiz then asked him the reason for not using the car, to which Mehsud replied: "What do you think that I would use that gift personally? I have submitted the car to our organisation's Toshakhana."

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have turned sour as Pakistan consistently blames Afghan authorities for inaction over TTP within its territory.

Pakistan targeted TTP camps on December 24 with airstrikes in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province, reportedly killing and wounding multiple suspected terrorists.

Dawn News reported that Pakistani fighter jets targeted TTP camps in the Murgha and Laman areas of the Bernal district in Afghanistan.

Interestingly, the strikes came on the same day that a Pakistani delegation, led by Special Representative Ambassador Muhammad Sadiq, met Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Foreign Minister Amir Muttaqi in Kabul to resume diplomatic dialogue after a year.

The Pakistani cross-border strike also followed the martyrdom of sixteen Pakistan Army soldiers on December 21, when terrorists attacked a checkpost in Makeen, South Waziristan district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Since 2022, Pakistan has experienced a sharp rise in terrorist attacks across the country, particularly in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

This is the second time in 2024 that Pakistan has targeted TTP camps inside Afghanistan. Previously, it launched two airstrikes into Afghanistan's Paktika and Khost provinces in March, targeting multiple terrorist hideouts.

After the recent surgical strike carried out by Pakistan, tensions ran high as Afghan Taliban forces targeted "several points" in Pakistan, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence.

The Afghan Defence Ministry's statement did not specify that Pakistan was hit but said the attacks were conducted "beyond the 'hypothetical line'" – an expression used by Afghan authorities to refer to the internationally recognised border Durand Line.