TTP offshoots under spotlight

The TTP is weakened but not fully vanquished. That law-enforcement agencies are focusing on three major terrorist networks of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Punjab to get to the handlers/facilitators of the suicide bomber that targeted law enforcers outside Data Darbar in Lahore on May 8 points to this. A senior police officer said on May 9 that two high-profile teams of law-enforcement agencies have been assigned the task to go after three offshoots of the TTP and their facilitators. The major focus is on the Hizbul Ahrar which has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Punjab is concentrating on three terrorist groups: the Hizbul Ahrar, Ghaiz Force, and Jamaatul Ahrar. The Hizbul Ahrar is a splinter group of the Jamaatul Ahrar handled and headed by militant Muqarram Shah from Afghanistan. The police officer said the CTD is also looking at the possibility of the involvement of Daesh. He said the investigations are being carried out on the pattern of the 2017 Mall Road blast probe in which the handler who dropped the suicide bomber near the target site was arrested within 24 hours of the blast. The handler, Anwarul Haq, was arrested at a rented house in R. A. Bazaar, Lahore. Later, 13 more persons connected with the Jamaatul Ahrar were also arrested. The Hizbul Ahrar had last carried out a gun-and-bomb attack on a bus carrying personnel of a security agency in Attock in May 2019. CTD officials will also grill the militants arrested in the Attock case in connection with the Data Darbar blast.

In the recent past, the TTP and its splinter groups have targeted several religious shrines such as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sindh and Shah Noorani shrine in Balochistan, and law enforcers. The pattern of the attacks shows their aim is to sow discord among Pakistanis and to weaken the state. Besides taking kinetic actions, the government needs to take measures at the level where the terrorist mindset is nurtured. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2019.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.