Earlier this year the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan activists fired on military posts in the two Waziristan agencies from inside Afghan territory. The terrorists also planted IEDs and land mines in bordering areas of the two agencies causing numerous casualties. There are social media reports now indicating that the TTP activists are sneaking into Pakistan’s tribal areas with sinister intentions.
A UN report published in February had noted with concern the reunification of TTP splinter groups in Afghanistan. According to the report, five extremist outfits that pledged allegiance to the TTP in July and August 2020 included the Shehryar Mehsud group, Jamaatul Ahrar, Hizbul Ahrar, the Amjad Farooqi group and the Usman Saifullah group, formerly known as Lashkar-e- Jhangvi. Last month in an interview with the CNN, TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud promised to fight to turn Pakistan’s tribal areas into an independent state. From introducing Sharia throughout Pakistan, the TTP has now decide to act as a secessionist network which wants to carve out Pakistan’s tribal areas into a separate country by launching terror attacks on Pakistan’s civilians and security personnel.
In his first news conference on Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid declared THE the Taliban would not allow Afghanistan to be used as a launching pad by terrorist networks to attack other countries. The question is what the Afghan Taliban want to do with terrorist groups operating from their country that include Al-Qaeda, IS, the TTP, the East Turkestan Independence Movement (ETIM) and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). While the first two terrorist groups have an international programme, the latter three have a country-specific agenda. The TTP and ETIM want to carve out parts of Pakistan and China while the IMU wants to get control of Uzbekistan. Will the Taliban disarm and disband these groups and allow their members to live in Afghanistan peacefully? Will they arrest members of these groups and hand them over to the governments of their respective countries? Or will they push them into the countries of their origin? The last option will be strongly rejected by China and Uzbekistan, as it should be by Pakistan also which has had an extremely bitter experience of the terrorist networks.
