Sanjha Morcha

Pakistan punishes Taliban for TTP attacks

Pakistan will continue to face the brunt of TTP attacks, as the latter’s crusade is religious and such militant groups seldom abandon their ideological beliefs.

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Yogesh Gupta

ON December 24 last year, Pakistan launched targeted attacks against Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideouts in the Paktia province of Afghanistan, killing dozens of people, mostly women and children. This was in response to the TTP’s raids against Pakistani security forces on December 21 in south Waziristan, which resulted in the killing of 16 Pakistan soldiers.

As US-made weapons seized during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 became available to the TTP, it increased its attacks inside Pakistan in 2024, killing 1,612 security personnel and others in 444 terrorist attacks. Last year was the deadliest in terms of terror attacks, as per Pakistani sources.

Pakistan’s reading of the Taliban — whom it reared and supported for more than two decades against the US-led international security forces in the expectations of having a friendly regime in Kabul, which would provide it with “strategic depth” — has turned out to be completely wrong. The Taliban has accused Islamabad of pocketing much of the international aid it got from the US and other countries in the name of Afghanistan. The two countries have also differed on the installation of a fence by Pakistan in the bordering areas as Afghanistan does not accept the Durand Line marking the border, claiming that it was an artificial line dividing the Pashtuns unfairly on both sides.

In 2021, the then Imran Khan government of Pakistan engaged in peace talks with the TTP, which were facilitated by the Taliban. The year-long negotiations, which included a brief ceasefire, failed without the ceasing of attacks by the TTP. According to some Pakistanis, these talks provided useful time to the TTP to regroup and boost its strength. Pakistan has given several warnings to the Taliban at the highest levels, but the latter has shown no serious intent to control the TTP.

The Taliban and TTP share ethnic ties and have fought together against the West for years. The Taliban has ideological sympathy with the TTP’s objective of establishing a Sharia state in the tribal areas of Pakistan and uses TTP’s militant activities to pressure Pakistan whenever it wants. Also, if the Taliban were to take harsh action against the TTP, the latter’s fighters could defect to the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISK), an offshoot of ISIS, with whom they share jihadist beliefs and deep-rooted bonds and which is active in several parts of eastern and north-western Afghanistan. It would, thus, weaken the Taliban and strengthen its enemy.

At present, the Taliban has given a decisive blow to the ISK, killing several of its senior commanders and keeping the group’s terror activities under check.

The TTP attacks have increased destabilisation and insecurity in Pakistan and encouraged other dissident groups, such as the Balochs and Pashtuns, to fight against the Pakistani state. Pakistan’s hopes of attracting foreign investment from Saudi Arabia and the UAE have not borne fruit. China, which is Pakistan’s “iron brother” is unhappy about inadequate security arrangements for its 1,200 workers who are building critical infrastructure in Pakistan as the TTP and Baloch separatists have targeted Chinese experts in several attacks. With Pakistan unable to pay China’s loans and provide foolproof security to its personnel, China has stalled work on most projects.

The TTP attacks leave Pakistan with few viable options. Pakistan has no desire to mount a full-scale war — which it is unlikely to win — against the Taliban. It has seen how the Afghans have fought valiantly against the Soviets and Americans in the last four decades. The Taliban may not have a big army like Pakistan, but it has a brilliant record of mounting guerrilla operations, with its human suicide bombers and hit-and-run attacks. Even Pakistan’s allies like China and the US would not favour that option for their own reasons. The US would not like the Taliban to be distracted from its fight against the ISK. China nurtures the ambition to extend its Belt and Road Initiative to Afghanistan and carry out projects in mining, oil exploration and infrastructure sectors. Also, then the Taliban will not be able to control the China-centric terror group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, in Afghanistan.

The deterioration in Pakistan’s relations with the Taliban has allowed India to reassess its policy towards the Taliban, reopen its embassy and provide emergency assistance to the Afghan people and consider resuming work on its economic projects in Afghanistan. The Afghan Embassy in New Delhi is now being run by the representatives of the Taliban government.

Pakistan has taken a few steps to increase the cost for the Taliban in allowing the TTP. These include the repatriation of about 8,00,000 Afghan refugees and disruption of Afghanistan’s land trade via Pakistan. These measures were not liked by the US and others as they felt that the Taliban was already facing a grim humanitarian situation, with a shortage of food, energy and other essential items, and was hardly in a position to look after so many more people.

The Taliban has also not relented in any of its policies about broad-basing its government, allowing education to women beyond the middle school or other human rights despite facing severe sanctions and near-total isolation on the world stage. It has enforced its religious codes of conduct in an authoritarian manner, oblivious of the global public opinion.It has become clear that the Taliban regime is not collapsing or being thrown out of power. More sanctions on the Taliban will only compound the misery of the Afghan people.

Pakistan is continuing its dialogue with the Taliban on the cessation of TTP attacks. The Taliban has asked Pakistan to allow trade to resume and assured it that it would shift the TTP elements away from the border. It is doubtful that the Taliban will keep this promise and change course. Given the experience, it is likely that Pakistan will continue to face the brunt of TTP attacks, as the latter’s crusade is religious and such militant groups seldom abandon their ideological beliefs.