KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign office has denied reports regarding the presence of Pakistani Taliban militants in Syria, saying “no militant has left the country,” the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Speaking to the BBC Urdu, Foreign Office spokesman Azaz Ahmed Chaudhry clarified that Pakistan would never like to see terrorist elements traveling abroad and taking part in any insurgency through terrorist activities. “Pakistani officials will never allow them to do so,” he added.

Meanwhile, spokesman for Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, Umar Hameed also denied the reports saying no state institutions, including intelligence agencies and the office of the IG Balochistan Police, could verify the authenticity of the claims.

He said the country’s interior policy is clear regarding militancy, and concerned personnel are deployed and are on the alert at all exit points of Pakistan.

Moreover, Pakistan’s envoy in Damascus Wahid Ahmed has told BBC that the Pakistani embassy there has yet to receive any formal complaint regarding the formation of a ‘cell’ by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or their contacts with the Syrian rebels.

It is pertinent to mention that a Pakistani Taliban commander told BBC on Friday that they had set up a cell in Syria six months ago to "assess the need of jihad" in the region.

Taliban commander Mohammad Amin, who he said was an operative of the TTP monitoring cell in Syria, was further quoted as saying that the cell sends "information and feedback" on the conflict in Syria back to Pakistan.

Yesterday, some key commanders of the outlawed TTP including Abdul Rashid Abbasi told Dawn.com that the first of batch of Pakistani Taliban fighters had reached Syria and had established a command and control center to launch operational activities alongside Syrian rebels to fight President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Abbasi also claimed that “another batch of 120 to 150 fighters is on its way from different routes and will reach Syrian cities this week to join the force.”