Five groups involved in K-P violence: Official

These groups are stoking sectarianism and carrying out terror attacks.

PESHAWAR:

At least five militant groups have been involved in violence in the capital city of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) where they are stoking sectarianism and targeting women, The Express Tribune has learnt.

A senior police official claimed that the Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam, its Tirah-based rival outfit Ansarul Islam and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chapters in Darra Adam Khel, Mohmand and Bajuar tribal regions have been active in the city.

“These groups are stoking sectarian unrest and carrying out terrorist attacks in the city. Some of them, especially the Bajaur and Mohmand chapters of TTP, are consistently targeting women and tribal chieftains,” the official said requesting anonymity.

“It does not mean other groups don’t have presence in the district. They also present here – but unlike other groups they are not involved in violence,” he added.

All militant groups operate independently, but in their hostility towards security forces and law-enforcement agencies they appear to be united.

One of these groups had carried out the February 23 attack on C-Division police station for which the Abdullah Azzam Brigade – a TTP Khyber Agency chapter wing which is responsible for attacking Nato supplies – had claimed responsibility.

“We suspect that the February 29 killing of a Chinese woman was an attempt to sabotage relations between Pakistan and China,” said the official.

The recent upsurge in violence in Peshawar comes at a time when government leaders are claiming that Taliban militants have been routed through sustained military operations from their strangleholds in tribal areas and parts of K-P.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2012.