Islamabad, Pakistan – The outlawed armed group Pakistan Taliban, identified by the acronym TTP, has issued a warning to the Pakistani military, stating that it’ll proceed concentrating on safety personnel and broaden its assaults to the army’s enterprise pursuits.
In an announcement issued on Sunday, the TTP pledged to go after varied industrial enterprises run by the Pakistani army.
Among the many firms the group named have been the Nationwide Logistics Cell, a Rawalpindi-based logistics agency; the Frontier Works Organisation, which specialises in engineering and building; Fauji Fertiliser Firm, a fertiliser producer; military-run housing authorities throughout Pakistan; a industrial financial institution; and several other different entities.
The Pakistan Taliban warned civilians to divest from military-run organisations inside three months, urging workers of those firms to search out various sources of revenue.
The army has not issued any response to the Pakistan Taliban assertion as but. Al Jazeera additionally reached out to Inter-Companies Public Relations (ISPR), the army’s media wing, for a response however didn’t obtain a reply.
Foreshadowing retaliation?
The TTP warning comes amid rising tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan over the group’s actions.
Final month, the Pakistani army launched air raids in Afghanistan, concentrating on alleged hideouts of the armed group.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban, which has dominated Afghanistan since August 2021, of offering secure havens for TTP fighters, permitting them to hold out cross-border assaults on regulation enforcement personnel inside Pakistan. The Taliban in Afghanistan denies these allegations.
The Pakistan Taliban is ideologically aligned with the Afghan Taliban. It was based in 2007 throughout the so-called “struggle on terror” by america and has been waging a insurrection towards the state of Pakistan for greater than a decade.
The group’s calls for embrace the imposition of strict Islamic regulation, the discharge of its imprisoned members, and a reversal of the merger of Pakistan’s tribal areas with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Because the Taliban’s ascension to energy in Kabul, TTP actions in Pakistan have surged dramatically, with almost 1,000 folks — principally safety personnel — killed in 2023.
Violence endured in 2024, which the Heart for Analysis and Safety Research (CRSS), an Islamabad-based suppose tank, described because the deadliest yr in almost a decade.
In keeping with CRSS, 2,526 folks have been killed in assaults final yr — together with almost 700 safety personnel, greater than 900 civilians and a few 900 armed fighters. These deaths characterize a nine-year excessive, exceeding the earlier peak report of two,432 deaths in 2016.
Imtiaz Gul, government director of the CRSS, warned that the Pakistan Taliban’s warning shouldn’t be dismissed.
“They know full effectively that the Pakistani military is the linchpin towards them on this combat, and their goal is to harm the military and undermine its pursuits,” Gul informed Al Jazeera.
Safety researcher Abdul Sayed, primarily based in Sweden, stated the Pakistan Taliban’s assertion alerts a “vital coverage shift” within the group’s technique.
“Beneath Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, the chief of the TTP since July 2018, a coverage was launched to restrict assaults primarily to safety forces. Nevertheless, latest air strikes in Afghanistan’s Bermal district, which additionally resulted in civilian casualties, probably led inside hardliners throughout the group to revise this method,” Sayed informed Al Jazeera.
TTP and Pakistan’s political divisions
Whereas the timing of the Pakistan Taliban’s assertion might align with escalating army operations, together with a campaign launched in June final yr, analysts counsel that the group can be exploiting the nation’s political divisions.
Qamar Cheema, an skilled on worldwide affairs and government director of the Sanober Institute, identified that identified supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the nation’s well-liked opposition occasion, not too long ago promoted social media campaigns to boycott merchandise from military-run companies.
The PTI, headed by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has accused the army of orchestrating his removing from energy in April 2022 in collusion with america and his political rivals.
Since his ousting, Khan, who has been jailed since August 2023, and his supporters have maintained a vital stance in the direction of the army.
After large-scale protests by PTI in late November, through which 12 party workers and supporters were killed, they launched a social media marketing campaign urging residents to boycott entities related to the army’s enterprise arm. The web marketing campaign gained additional momentum after Khan threatened to provoke a civil disobedience motion.
“If the PTI had not politicised state establishments, maybe the TTP won’t have been able to think about concentrating on this area,” Cheema stated.
In a information convention final yr, ISPR chief Normal Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry defended the army’s financial position, revealing that it had immediately contributed greater than 100 billion rupees ($359m) to the nationwide exchequer in duties and taxes. He stated military-affiliated organisations paid an extra 260 billion rupees ($934m) in taxes.
Sayed, the researcher, identified that the Pakistan Taliban seeks to capitalise on this fractured political panorama, the place the army is dealing with common criticism.
Return of city violence?
Following its institution in 2007, the Pakistan Taliban was answerable for among the nation’s deadliest assaults, together with a 2014 bloodbath at Peshawar’s Military Public Faculty, the place greater than 130 kids have been killed.
Analysts fear the group’s new technique might sign a return to widespread violence, significantly in city areas.
Cheema stated the Pakistan Taliban has not too long ago threatened members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
“Now we have seen the TTP concentrating on political parties earlier than. Nevertheless, this indiscriminate concentrating on of civilians will probably backfire, although I consider they might have the Afghan Taliban’s help,” he stated.
Gul of the CRSS urged that the Pakistan Taliban’s rationale is to stress the army into halting cross-border strikes into Afghanistan.
“The tensions with the Afghan authorities stem from Pakistan’s hardline army technique of launching air strikes on their soil. The TTP in all probability assumes that threatening assaults on industrial pursuits may dissuade the military from additional aggression,” he stated.
Sayed, although, believes that this coverage shift will result in enlargement and scope of the battle into city areas.
“A key benefit for the TTP lies in its capability to generate funds, as companies and people related to them might resort to paying extortion to keep away from being focused,” he stated.
