EDITORIAL: The international community ignores Pakistan’s warning that TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) could emerge as al-Qaeda’s (AQ’s) arm with a regional/global terrorist agenda to its own peril. One would think that the recent collapse of the Syrian regime at the hands of former AQ rebels would send shockwaves across the civilised world, but it seems political considerations have taken precedence and the glee in western capitals over the departure of the Iran-friendly Assad regime outweighs, at least for now, the consequences of letting an extremist outfit to take over a country in such a sensitive neighbourhood at such a fragile time.
Regardless, the world must remember that TTP has declared proper war on the state of Pakistan before; just last decade when we were forced to put no less than 80,000 men, women and children in early graves. And even though its fighters found sanctuary in Afghanistan, the Taliban agreed to sort them out upon their return to Kabul in exchange for Pakistan facilitating the withdrawal of American forces from the country after two decades. Sadly, as we know only too well now, the Taliban did not live up to their promise. Instead, they have allowed TTP a free hand to ramp up cross-border attacks on Pakistan’s security forces.
It’s not that Islamabad has not tried to talk sense to Kabul, repeatedly reminding it of its promise. In fact, the Pakistani government, very unwisely, went so far as to open a channel of negotiations with TTP as equals and even initiated a strategy of repatriating its fighters back into the country under a dubious amnesty scheme. But soon enough it turned out that TTP was just using the talks to buy time while the Pakistani government itself allowed hardened fighters – killers of the Pakistanis – back into the border regions. After a while, out of sheer frustration Pakistan also threatened Afghanistan with “severe consequences” for continuing to harbour TTP terrorists so close to the Pakistani border, yet that’s as far as the pendulum swung and there has been nothing new since then; except the fact that Pakistan has now put the spotlight on the old links and possibly new collaboration between TTP and AQ just when the Afghan government’s attention is grabbed by the fight against ISIS.
While there’s no doubting the legitimate threat from ISIS, perhaps the Taliban fail to realise that they will have much bigger problems if the TTP-AQ alliance takes solid shape. Already, TTP has surprised analysts, onlookers and the military alike by forming tactical relationships with insurgent and secessionist groups in Balochistan. And news that Pakistani intelligence might have picked up chatter suggesting a similar arrangement in the works with AQ should worry not just Islamabad but also Kabul.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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