Confronting the TTP

EDITORIAL: Although the terror outfit, so-called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), hosted by its ideological brothers, Afghan Taliban, formally called off a few days ago the ceasefire agreed with Pakistan last June, ordering its militants to attack “wherever” and “whenever” in this country, it had already escalated its violent campaign.

During the recent weeks and months, TTP militants, returning from Afghanistan under a dubious agreement, have been committing all sorts of violent crimes against the local people in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also intensifying attacks on security forces as well as the police. Last week in Nowshera district, three police officers lost their lives in an ambush. A few days earlier, six of their colleagues were martyred in Shahab Khel area of Lakki Marwat.

The TTP claimed credit for both attacks. In a particularly gruesome act in Bannu, a Frontier Constabulary soldier and his son were gunned down as they slept in their home. The soldier was beheaded and his head hung on a tree to foment terror. An obscure group calling itself Ittehadul Mujahideen Khorasan — apparently an offshoot of the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) — took responsibility for that ghastly deed. These are consequences of the appeasement policy adopted by State until recently.

Visiting on Tuesday troops deployed along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Tirah area of Khyber district in the wake of surging militant violence, new Chief of the Army Staff Gen Syed Asim Munir vowed to carry out the fight against terrorism till the achievement of enduring peace and stability in the country. These ruthless killers and their local facilitators must be eliminated root and branch.

The threat of terrorism, however, will not go away as long as the TTP and other terrorist groups have safe havens in Afghanistan. It is about time the Afghan Taliban are strictly told not to provide sanctuary to these elements. In that Pakistan has the US on side.

At a recent press briefing, State Department spokesman Ned Price expressed concern over reports that IS-K had claimed responsibility for the attack on Pakistan’s Charge d’ Affaires in Kabul. His country, he said, remained committed to further degrading Al Qaeda, IS-K, TTP and other terrorist groups that pose a threat to the US and its partners and allies. Earlier, another State Department official said that militants operating in Afghanistan were a common enemy and the US and Pakistan have “shared interest” in combating them.

Afghanistan’s well-wishers, including China and Russia, have also been expressing concern over the presence of violent militant groups on Afghan soil. The Kabul government has been trying to rein in China-centric militants groups, and is also battling its own enemy, the IS-K, though, so far without much success. But it is unwilling to control the TTP.

In its recent report the US Council on Foreign Relations noted that the IS-K has doubled its strength since the withdrawal of the US troops, from 2,000 to 4,000 fighters, nearly half of them from Pakistan – mostly TTP dissenters. They have been involved in several terrorist attacks in this country. It is therefore in the interest of Pakistan to join hands with the US to do whatever it takes to disintegrate and defeat the TTP and IS-K.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022