Violence wave : K-P’s terror woes have grown in past year

The terror incident that sent Peshawar reeling is the biggest one in a list of attacks that have plagued Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) for over a year now which foreshadows the need for heightened security in the province.

After the regime change in Afghanistan, there has been an increase in the cross-border attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas since the past few months with the suicide attack on the Kocha Risaldar Mosque in Peshawar being heralded as gruesome as the massacre in the Army Public School back in 2014.

With 62 people dead and about 200 injured, in the recent blast, K-P is at the risk of more casualties if the terror incidents of the past year are an indication of what awaits the province. Data obtained from the provincial Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), shows that a total of 154 cases of terror and terror-related events were reported in the last three months of 2021 alone. The data, a copy of which is available with the Express Tribune, shows that K-P was plagued with a total of 269 incidents from January of 2021 to February of 2022, as per the CTD.

Abdul Basit, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, commenting on the increase in terrorist activities in Pakistan, said that when the US and NATO forces left the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had a chance to regroup. “With the departure of the Americans, they are no longer at risk of drone strikes, so these deviant groups have reorganized,” Basit explained, “therefore, their attacks have also increased in Pakistan, especially in and around Peshawar.”

A month before the blast, the Inspector General (IG) K-P had said that along with the TTP, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also referred to as the Islamic State (IS), was a big challenge for the police force as it was involved in the target killing of law enforcement officials and minorities in the province. “After the withdrawal from Afghanistan, ISIL has now turned its attention towards Pakistan and has started targeted operations in the country, which the security agencies have confirmed as well,” said Basit, whose research focuses on terrorism and counter-terrorism.

While Basit predicts further escalation in ISIL’s operations, the death toll from the 269 incidents that have rocked K-P in the past year stands at 129 - out of which 56 were police officials and 73 were civilians. Furthermore, 65 police officials and 79 civilians were also injured in the various incidents. As far as the recent blast is concerned, according to IG K-P, Moazzam Jahan Ansari, the group involved in the Peshawar blast has been identified and the attacker’s identity and accomplices have been traced. “Police and law enforcement agencies have been attacked in recent months, but we have also had great success in breaking terrorist networks,” Ansari told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2022.