Around 400 Soldiers, Policemen, Killed in Pakistan in ten years
A report published in Dawn says that it has come to pass that the prediction that the “TTP juggernaut” would leave the tribal regions and “spread devastation in the rest of the country” was accurate.
Time has come for the state to act immediately before other such assaults happen, the report emphasises, noting that “during the last few decades, important Al Qaeda operatives have been seized from the metropolis.”
It asks “the squabbling politicians who rule in our name, as well as the security establishment” that continues reminding us that “everything is OK”,” to “understand the true situation” and calls for a swift reaction to TTP. As a result of this inaction, terrorism is on the rise in Pakistan and Afghanistan, undermining democracy and raising security concerns for the entire region, Times of Israel reported.
As terrorism spreads its tentacles from Afghanistan and Pakistan’s tribal areas into the country’s Punjab heartland and other provinces, the banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has reportedly killed close to 400 soldiers, policemen and para-military Rangers in last 10 years, reported Times of Israel citing Pak-based Dawn newspaper.
These statistics only apply to high-security locations like military and law enforcement facilities, they do not apply to other public areas. The number of injured civilians is significantly higher. Mosques, churches, and other houses of worship are not taken into consideration, including those used by Ahmadiyas, a minority of Muslims in Pakistan who have been classified as non-Muslims by the Constitution.
The 174 people killed – mostly children – in the TTP attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2016, are not taken into account in a ten-year timeline of 2013-2023 published by Dawn newspaper.
According to the report in Times of Israel, there is no chronology given for Pakistan’s official assertion that 84,000 people have died as a result of terrorism. Although there are many more, the TTP is the biggest of the terror organisations. According to security specialists, the majority of terrorist organisations are linked to Al Qaida or the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP).
The ten-year timeline of 2013-2023, does not include homicides committed by more established Sunni extremists organisations, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba, and many more, who have operated under several names and frequently changed them after being outlawed, Times of Israel said.
Right-wing mainstream political parties, according to political analysts, keep contact with terrorist organisations and use their cadres, particularly during election seasons.
Of the major politicians, while others have been subtle, former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been a vocal votary of holding a dialogue with the militants. Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf had dubbed him “Taliban Khan.” But Musharraf was also accused of using the TTP. Two different probes indicated his role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the Times of Israel reported.
Musharraf’s decision to authorise a siege of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, which resulted in the deaths of 100 people–mostly female madrassah students–is credited with giving rise to the TTP. It spread widely and forged connections with the Afghan Taliban, the report said.
Because the government refused to abide by its requirements, the TTP unilaterally ended the truce in December 2021 and once more in November 2022. It sought the cancellation of the merger of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
The publication of the TTP-terror-timeline comes amid a controversy over who should be held accountable for successive Pakistani regimes’ “soft” handling of security experts, the UN, and Western nations. Islamabad claims, rather legitimately, that the Taliban leaders in Kabul are sheltering the TTP and housing thousands of insurgent families. Kabul refutes this.
TTP would be “rehabilitated” in the tribal area, according to Imran Khan. He has stated that he had the option of either “killing” 30,000 to 40,000 people, including women and children, or allowing them to live in peace.
He now claims that the Taliban wants to return to their native country, General Qamar Jawed Bajwa, the former head of the army with whom he had a falling out last year. In the most recent development, retired Lt Gen. Faiz Hamid, the former head of the ISI, has been accused of pressing this action by Khan’s PTI party and a minister for the current prime minister Shehbaz Sharif. A gap developed between Khan and Bajwa as a result of Hamid’s management of the Afghan Taliban and the TTP. When Bajwa became “neutral,” Khan lost control. As a result, the TTP is now at the centre of the ongoing brawl between the army and parliamentarians as well as between political parties.
