Two days ago, Taliban leader and deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Yasir shared a picture from the 1971 war, one that showed Islamabad surrendering to India after the 1971 war that led to the formation of Bangladesh. His caption, however, was more threatening than mockery: "Do not think of a military attack on us, otherwise there will be a shameful repetition of the military agreement with India," Yasir warned.
Yasir's warning came just as Pakistan’s top security body, the National Security Committee announced that it would take out any entities that resort to violence as it has "zero tolerance for terrorism." The warning was aimed at the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant organisation also called Pakistan Taliban, which has boldly taken on the Pakistani government.
According to Pakistan’s defence minister, the TTP is using Afghanistan's soil to launch attacks on his country, prompting a sharp response from the Taliban government in Kabul which called the allegation "incorrect and regrettable."
Besides, Pakistani Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah too had suggested that Islamabad could be forced to take unilateral action against the TTP inside Afghanistan, a statement that infuriated the Taliban.
In response, Taliban spokesperson said that it was trying its best that the territory of Afghanistan is not used against Pakistan or any other country. "We are committed to this goal, but the Pakistani side is also responsible to try controlling the situation, refrain from giving baseless statements and provocative assertions, because such statement and mistrust is not in the interest of either side," it added.
But, how did the organisation, closely allied with the Afghan Taliban born as a by-product of the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, become a headache for the Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz?
TTP, which came to being in 2007, had weakened from 2014 to 2018 due to U.S. drone warfare and factional infighting. But the militant organisation experienced a resurgence from 2014 to 2018 after the Taliban and U.S. government signed a peace deal in February 2020.
The TTP openly took on the Pakistan government when in November 2022 it called off a ceasefire agreed with the federal government and urged ordered its militants to stage terrorist attacks across the country. Their reasoning was that the Pakistan government was carrying out non-stop attacks against it.
According to an annual report by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, Pakistan security forces lost at least 282 personnel during 2022 in attacks that included IED ambushes, suicide attacks, and raids on security posts, mostly in the Pakistan-Afghan border regions. "The year 2022 ended with the deadliest month (thus far) for Pakistan’s security personnel over a decade, with the emergence of a new terror triad comprising TTP, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Daesh-Afghanistan as the biggest threat to the country," the CRSS report said.
While the TTP continues to terrorise Pakistan, the country, already mired in economic quagmire, had expressed its intention to hold peace talks but only on the condition that the insurgents lay down their arms first.
