Pakistan, June 25 -- For years, Pakistan kept telling the world that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan was not operating in a vacuum. Islamabad said its fighters had sanctuaries across the border, that they were receiving support from Afghan soil, and that the authorities sitting in Kabul and Kandahar could not wash their hands of this problem. Many in the West listened politely, but rarely accepted the argument with the seriousness it deserved.

Now the same point is being acknowledged in Europe.

In a televised interview, a senior European representative admitted what Pakistan has been saying for a long time: the TTP is a terrorist organisation; it receives support from Afghanistan; and the people who now rule Kabul and Kandahar have a res...