Pakistan tells UN 4,700 killed in attacks from Afghanistan

Pakistan's representative at the UN Human Rights Council, Muhammad Jawad Ajmal, told the council that more than 4,700 Pakistanis have been killed in terrorist attacks originating from Afghanistan over the past three years, Dawn reported.

Ajmal was speaking during the council's interactive dialogue on Afghanistan on Thursday evening, according to the paper. He said the Taliban administration continues to allow terrorist groups to operate from Afghan soil.

The report did not give a breakdown of the attacks behind the 4,700 figure, or say how the casualties were counted, and the number could not be independently verified.

In a separate intervention at the same session, UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett urged member states not to normalise relations with the Kabul administration without verifiable improvements in human rights, Dawn reported. Bennett holds the UN human rights mandate on Afghanistan.

The Kabul Tribune also reported the session, under the headline "Pakistan Accuses Taliban of Harboring Militants as UN Expert Condemns Rights Record". Neither outlet published the full text of either statement.

Both accounts place Pakistan's complaint about cross-border militancy and the special rapporteur's criticism of the Taliban's rights record in the same council meeting on Afghanistan, held on Thursday evening.

The reports carried no immediate response from the Taliban administration to Ajmal's allegations, and no statement from Pakistan's mission in Geneva was carried in either.

The Human Rights Council's interactive dialogues on a country bring member states and the UN mandate holder into the same sitting, with states taking the floor before the expert responds. Bennett's remarks were reported by Dawn as coming separately from the Pakistani intervention.

Pakistan has used UN human rights and security forums to press the case that attacks on its territory are planned and launched from Afghan soil, and Ajmal's figure is the count his delegation placed before the council this week. The Taliban administration has not been recognised by the United Nations, and states at the council have disagreed over how far engagement with Kabul should go in the absence of what Bennett described as verifiable rights improvements.