Govt bids to quell rise in TTP attacks

Strategy to keep group’s threat at bay is by accommodating them

PESHAWAR:

Since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has ramped up attacks on its side of the border, leaving Islamabad scrambling to reach a peace deal.

However, experts say the group has been emboldened by the Taliban's successful ousting of world superpower the United States from Afghanistan.

Nearly, Pakistan is trying to quell a TTP comeback. "The (fighters) feel more comfortable after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, they can now move freely in Afghanistan," a TTP fighter told AFP on condition of anonymity. "They have no fear of US drone strikes. And they can meet and communicate easily."

The renewed confidence became apparent in October when the group's leader Noor Wali Mehsud came out of hiding and was photographed shaking hands with residents and speaking in public - something unimaginable just a few months ago.

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More than a dozen factions have since July 2020 rallied under his leadership. In an attempt to improve the TTP's image and distinguish them from the Islamic State's extremism, Mehsud has largely taken the group in a new direction - sparing civilians and ordering attacks only on security and law enforcement officials.

Recent attacks have been far less deadly than the mass casualty bombings that once terrorised the country. For Islamabad, part of the strategy to keep the threat of the TTP at bay is by accommodating them.

The release of about 100 TTP fighters was a key demand for the militants to agree to a ceasefire, a source from the group told AFP. The fighters are also appealing to be able to come out of hiding and return to the recently merged tribal districts with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

But without the support of elders - any deal risks being meaningless. "It will be difficult for them to return without laying down arms because they have enemies there, they have killed people," Baadshah, a tribal elder, told AFP in Peshawar.

"They have grudges against the Taliban. But they are ready to accept them unwillingly if it solves the problem," he added. Made up of multiple factions, some of which also swore allegiance to AlQaeda, the TTP remains a distinct group from Afghanistan's Taliban.

The TTP has some 4,000 to 6,000 fighters, down from 20,000 at its peak, according to estimates from the Pakistani authorities. Their top leadership was wiped out by military operations backed by US drone strikes after 2014.

A Pakistan official who asked not to be named told AFP that the TTP is "not the same group as it was eight years ago". The current negotiations were taking place with young fighters and "third tier leaders", he added.