Pakistan is showing its commitment to fight the menace of terrorism with a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy as the outgoing year 2023 was seen as the deadliest one in the last decade or so. Hundreds of lives were lost in nearly 29 suicides and hundreds of more targeted attacks during the year under review. It was revealed that most of the terrorist attacks were reportedly traced back to Afghanistan.
The Pakistani militants launched a lethal campaign against Pakistan on January 30, 2023, when a huge suicide blast killed 87 worshippers mostly police cops in a mosque in the Police Line Peshawar. The attack was claimed by the former Jamaat-u-Ahrar, now part of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. It was the major attack since the TTP ended the ceasefire in November 2022. A hope to resolve the issue peacefully remained a hope as the TTP demands were not acceptable to the people and government of Pakistan.
In the last month of December in 2023, two consecutive suicide attacks on a camp of Pakistan army and Police in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank alarmed everyone as more violence may come in the months ahead. In one of the attacks on the temporary camp of the military in the Daraban area of Dera Ismail Khan, 23 soldiers were killed, and claimed by a little-known militant group Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan.
The group is said to have surfaced in February 2023. Still, security sources and independent analysts see this group as an off-shoot of the TTP to divert attention from the Afghan Taliban. However, the policy and strategy of the TJP and TTP are the same. The group has been issuing statements through social media, but no direct contact or video messages of the group spokesman Mullah Qasim and leader Abdullah Yaghistani create suspicion over its very formation.
Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies or PICSS in a recent report stated nearly 329 people were killed and 582 injured in 29 suicide attacks in the just ending year. It was the worst year since 2013 when 683 people lost their lives in 47 suicide attacks. There was a 93 percent rise in suicide attacks in 2023 than 2022.
The Pakistani Taliban and other allied militant groups have changed their terrorist activities, they are mostly targeting security forces. According to the Think-Tank PICSS, these groups claim they are fighting and targeting security forces with 48 percent of the attacks being carried out against the forces in the under-reviewed year. Attacks against the security forces were followed by the civilians as hit the most.
Other than the Pakistani Taliban groups, the Islamic State of Khorasan Province, or DAESH Khorasan has also actively been attacking the security forces and civilians. The worst attacks claimed by the IS-KP were in the tribal district of Bajaur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Mastung, Balochistan where hundreds of civilians were killed. The group has also been carrying out attacks against the security forces. The group is active on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border. The Afghan Taliban forces have been taking action against the IS-KP militants, but are reluctant to take action against the Pakistani militants allegedly based in Afghanistan.
The rising incidents of violence by the terrorists have not only impacted the internal security of Pakistan but also a disservice to the allegedly host country Afghanistan. The interim government of the Taliban is publicly contradicting reports that the Afghan soil was being used for the terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. However, merely issuing the denial could not resolve the issue that soared the bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban is publicly denying misuse of the Afghan soil, but privately confessing that the TTP and other Pakistani groups are in Afghanistan. However, it was revealed that some of the TTP fighters have been arrested in Afghanistan by the Taliban forces.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed told reporters after his return from attending an international conference in Iran on Palestine that he had a detailed discussion with the Afghan acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on the sideline of the conference to revive bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries. He said the Afghan foreign minister told him that they had arrested several TTP fighters. “We have more TTP members in jail. The attackers, coming back from the Chitral cross-border attack, were arrested by our security forces,” Mr Syed quoted Amir Khan Muttaqi as saying.
To normalize bilateral ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Taliban formally invited the head of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam Maulana Fazlur Rehman to visit Kabul. The scheduled visit is seen as important to have a positive impact on bilateral relations. However, Pakistan has not officially confirmed any role, assigned by the government, to discuss the issue of TTP.
In a recent development, a spokesman of the Afghanistan Interior Ministry Abdul Qanae told the media that 35-40 fighters of the TTP in Afghanistan’s eastern province Kunar. This was an understanding of the situation to admit that these militants have been using the Afghan territory. Pakistan has been asking Kabul to take strict action against any such groups that have been planning and executing terrorist attacks in Pakistan from across the border.
In 2023, security forces claim that they have recovered sophisticated modern weapons and gadgets from the terrorists in some of the recent attacks. Laser and thermal guns and gadgets were found involved in the attacks on an Air Force Base in Mianwali, Punjab, and Dera Ismail Khan military camps. Pakistan raised the issue as most of such kinds of weapons were left over by the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, which were either provided or taken by the terrorists.
Pakistan is asking Kabul to take action against the terrorist groups and is also expressing resolve to completely eradicate the menace from Pakistan. The official reports, compiled by the security forces, state that 372 terrorists were killed and 1313 were arrested in 1096 targeted military and intelligence-based operations in Pakistan in the outgoing year. However, the banned TTP claims it had carried 881 attacks killing 977, and injuring 1216 in the year just ended.
There was a surge in terrorist attacks in 2023, but many attacks were foiled by the timely actions of the security forces. The TTP attacks are restricted to the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a former tribal region, and Baluchistan. These areas are in close vicinity of the Afghan border which poses a challenge for Pakistan. An effective regional approach could help put an end to this bloodshed in the region which could make it more peaceful than ever.
