Pakistan urges Afghan Taliban to address perception as 'ideological cousins of TTP'

Islamabad — Pakistan urged Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders Wednesday to explain their relationship with a globally designated terrorist group waging cross-border bloodshed and address concerns about sweeping restrictions they have imposed on Afghan women. The remarks by Islamabad’s special representative to Afghanistan, Asif Durrani, came as the militant group in question — Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP — has intensified deadly attacks on Pakistani soil from its alleged sanctuaries on the Afghan side of the border.