Pakistan Taliban, TTP Thread

[nrupatunga]

Pakistan Taliban Has 500 Feamle Suicide Bombers, Cleric Says

he Pakistani Taliban has as many as 500 female suicide bombers ready to act, a representative of the group involved in peace negotiations said, underscoring the risk of further violence if talks fail.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan -- known as the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP -- sees no urgency to reach an agreement with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government, Maulana Abdul Aziz, one of three negotiators representing the TTP, said in a Feb. 7 interview at his Islamabad seminary. The two sides started talks last week.

"You should know that at the moment they have at least 400 to 500 female suicide bombers in Waziristan and other tribal areas," said Aziz, former head cleric of Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, referring to the TTP. "The government should realize the situation and their demands."

Sharif revived peace talks with the group as pressure grows for a military strike after attacks last month killed more than two dozen soldiers, part of violence that caused the deaths of 40,000 Pakistanis since 2001. Failure to reach a deal would threaten Sharif's efforts to bolster the $225 billion economy as the U.S. reduces troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

Imran Khan, whose party runs a province bordering Afghanistan, predicted in an interview last week that terrorist attacks would prompt the talks to fail, and a military operation would start soon afterward. Khan turned down an offer from the TTP to sit on the same committee as Aziz.

'Exaggerated Figure'
Aziz said the Taliban is most interested in implementing Sharia law in Pakistan. The U.S. military presence in Afghanistan is "a very small factor" in the fight, he said, disputing statements by Khan and others.

"They are fighting for the implementation of Sharia," Aziz said at the seminary, where some 1,300 female students are studying. "It's the law of nature that when people don't get their rights, they pick up arms."

The Pakistani Taliban has demanded the withdrawal of troops from tribal areas and the release of prisoners, Dawn newspaper reported today, citing officials it did not identify. The demands stemmed from a meeting of TTP clerics over the weekend, the report said.

The number of female suicide bombers mentioned by Aziz "is a very exaggerated figure," said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies. "The Taliban are way ahead in the propaganda war, and they have given a tough time to the state," he said. "Female suicide bombers have been used, but not too many."

'No Hurry'
Aziz's brother died in 2007 along with at least 100 others when former President Pervez Musharraf ordered troops to storm the Red Mosque to end a challenge by pro-Taliban clerics seeking to impose Islamic law in the capital. The move sparked demonstrations and reprisal attacks.

Aziz, who was jailed for two years after the Red Mosque raid, last week temporarily withdrew himself from the talks because the government insisted the negotiations be held under the constitution and avoid including the imposition of Islamic Sharia law, a key TTP demand. He will remain on the TTP's committee, he said.

"The Taliban are in no hurry," Aziz said, when asked whether the group wanted a deal soon to avoid a military strike. "They say they are not worried about it. They have been in a state of war for the past 10 years."

Suicide Bombers
Sharif won an election last year after pledging negotiations with the TTP, a loose group of militants operating along the Afghan border. While Sharif received the backing of all political parties in September to begin talks, the two sides had postponed meeting amid a series of suicide bombings and a U.S. drone strike that killed the TTP's leader.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who leads the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, has called on Sharif to take a tougher line against the militants. He said in a Jan. 28 Twitter post that Sharif was following a "policy of appeasement."

In 2009, Taliban militants took control of Swat district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law, which forbade girls to attend schools. They beheaded local officials and burned schools in a two-year fight that uprooted 2 million people from their homes before a 10-week army offensive ended their rule.

Suicide bombers have been used frequently in the conflict, including two that killed more than 80 people at a Christian church in Peshawar in September. Aziz justified the use of suicide bombers, saying that they believed in the cause and were willing to sacrifice.

"If the military has weapons and air power, they have suicide bombers," Aziz said of the Taliban. "You cannot match them. Suicide bombers even destroyed the power of America in Afghanistan."

 

[Blackwater]

brainless people

 

[nrupatunga]

These two points concerned me in this article.

The Taliban told the government last week there was no chance of peace in the country unless Pakistan changed its political and legal system and officially embraced Islamic law.

As violence spread, at least eight people, mainly Shi'ite Muslims, were killed in an explosion in the northwestern district of Kohat on Sunday, police said.

 

[nrupatunga]

A slightly dated article on TTP

How the Pakistani Taliban Became a Deadly Force

 

[nrupatunga]

Pakistan: Why war with the Taliban is now the only option

Terrorist attack on a court complex in the heart of Islamabad came as a profound shock, given that this is a highly fortified city where bombings simply do not happen. Eleven people were killed and dozens wounded by two suicide bombers. No one claimed responsibility for the attack but it is thought to be the work of a faction of the Pakistani Taliban or TTP, as they are known in Pakistan.

The shock of the attack was compounded by the fact that the Pakistani Government had only the day before agreed to a TTP ceasefire in order to give the stalled peace process another chance.

In early February the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif initiated a dialogue with the TTP with the hope of ending an insurgency which has claimed the lives of almost 50,000 civilians since 2001. Even with the support of all mainstream political parties, these talks were never going to be easy. No one I spoke to in Pakistan seriously believed they would succeed.

The TTP, a motley group of some70 different factions divided by tribal affiliation, tactics and approach to talks, insists that the constitution must be scrapped, Sharia law must become the law of the land throughout Pakistan, and all military ties with the US must end immediately.

The Government, on the other hand, is adamant that negotiations must take place within the framework of the constitution. As for breaking links with the US, even with all the difficulties in that relationship, this too is not about to happen soon.

Given these unbridgeable differences, it came as no surprise that the talks broke down after the first session.

The breakdown was accelerated when, within days of the opening of talks in mid-February, the TTP executed 23 Pakistani soldiers it had been holding since 2010, confirming that the TTP is far from united on how to approach the talks.

The Government's response was air strikes against TTP positions mainly in North Waziristan, the TTP's last stronghold in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. The military also used air strikes in 2010 to degrade the enemy's capabilities before launching a major ground operation in South Waziristan.

Accordingly, there is widespread expectation that the military will soon launch a military offensive into North Waziristan following Monday's attack in Islamabad.

The Government has few other options. Were it not to retaliate for the latest terrorist attack, it would effectively allow the TTP to set the agenda, undermining the Government's credibility and commitment in fighting the militants. More importantly, it would upset the military, which has lost more men fighting the TTP than all Coalition fatalities in Afghanistan since 2001.

The Government should now carry out its military option ruthlessly and relentlessly. Any delay or half measure would simply give the TTP and its ideological fellow travelers time to either prepare for battle or, more likely, flee North Waziristan for the mountains of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, given the thinning of the Coalition presence in eastern Afghanistan in the lead-up to final departure in December, there will be no 'anvil' to the Pakistani army's 'hammer' to stop the TTP when it escapes across the border. So TTP fighters will most likely seep back into the tribal areas once the military operation is over. Many suspect large numbers of fighters have already fled across the border.

The bigger strategic question is: what would such an operation mean for the Government's relationship with 'good' Taliban factions which have not targeted Pakistan Government forces in the past (such as the Haqqani Network, the nastiest of the Afghan Taliban)?

According to Sartaj Aziz, the national security adviser to Prime Minister Sharif, who was in Washington a few weeks ago, a military operation in North Waziristan and elsewhere in the tribal areas would go after all militants. This was reiterated by the new Pakistani ambassador to the US, Jalil Abbas Jilani, during an address he gave in Washington last week.

Needless to say, this would be music to the ears of the Obama Administration, which has for years asked the Pakistanis to go after Haqqani Network fighters hiding in the mountains of North Waziristan. But the Pakistanis have consistently refused to oblige, arguing it would create more trouble for Pakistan down the road.

If it is indeed true that the Pakistani Government will no longer differentiate between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists, this would be a substantial policy shift from the previous government's position. Perhaps the Government and the military have finally come to the realisation that supporting the Taliban and all like-minded terrorists was not such a good idea after all — the blowback of 50,000 dead Pakistanis civilians should confirm this clearly.

Of course, if there is a serious and sustained military operation against the TTP and other al Qaida-friendly militants, Islamabad can expect massive and indiscriminate retaliation.

Nevertheless, the Government is on safe policy ground. The people of Pakistan have repeatedly indicated that these attacks on civilians must stop. They have also made clear that the Taliban's medieval version of Islam has no place in Pakistani society. The latest attack in the heart of Islamabad should put the final nail into the negotiation coffin so that it can be buried once and for all. Anything else would be a disaster for Pakistan and the region.

 

[nrupatunga]

Fazlullah removes Sajna as TTP chief of South Waziristan

Banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Chief, Mullah Fazlullah has sacked Khan Siad Sajna as Ameer of South Waziristan and Umar Khurasani would command the movement in both North and South Waziristan.

Hakeemullah Mehsud's group spokesman Daud Mehsud told Geo News from an unknown location that TTP's Vice Ameer Shaikh Khalid Haqqani has been made Ameer of South Waziristan Agency.

Daud Mehsud said that they respect decisions taken by the proscribed TTP Chief Mullah Fazlullah.

========================

But with yesterday's airstrike, talks are not on table for atleast some time now.

 

[nrupatunga]

DFI Thread - Major Faction Splits From Pakistani Taliban

========

Pakistan Taliban Fractures Over 'Un-Islamic' Kidnapping and Killing

Mualana Fazlullah

A powerful faction of Pakistan's Taliban quit the organization on Wednesday, with the leader of the breakaway group saying most militants had forgotten their Islamic ideals and turned to crime.

"After days of thinking and discussions, we decided to quit Maulana Fazlullah and people working with him," he said. ""They were involved in the killing of innocent people, kidnapping for ransom and extortion."

Also known as Mullah Radio, Fazlullah is the head of umbrella group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which was formed in 2007 and pledged to enforce Islamic rule. Fighters loyal to him were blamed for shooting schoolgirl and activist Malala Yousafzai.

The new militant faction called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan-South Waziristan (TTP-SW) would work under the leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, Tariq said.

"The prime purpose of our organization is to fight alongside Afghan Taliban against the foreign forces in Afghanistan," he added.

Differences between the Pakistani Taliban leadership emerged over recent failed peace talks with the Pakistan government, and came days after the country's military launched a ground offensive to root out militants in North Waziristan.

"We wanted to find out a peaceful solution to conflict and favored peace talks with the government," he said. "However those Pakistani Taliban are sitting in Afghanistan and running the group from across the border are opposed talks."

A Pakistani security official based in South Waziristan who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity, said that frequent military operations had weakened Pakistani Taliban and they had no other option now except laying down arms.

"The people had seen the real face‎ of the Taliban. They killed over 50,000 people in Pakistan, destroyed hundreds of schools and caused billions of losses to the country. After disintegration, it would be difficult for them now to survive now. Unity was their main power," he added.

 

[nrupatunga]

TTP's suicide hit kills 5 people including two colonels

Five people, including two lieutenant colonels, were killed in a suicide attack on a vehicle of the Pakistan Army at a railway crossing on Pindi Road in Feteh Jang, some 25km from the federal capital.

The martyred army personnel were identified as Lt-Col Zahir Shah and Lt-Col Arshad Hussain.

Their double-cabin vehicle and a rickshaw moving very close to it were destroyed badly in the suicide hit. Rickshaw driver Muhammad Saleem also died in the attack. However, the authorities did not release the names of other two deceased. A source disclosed to The Nation that two others were the driver and guard of army officers.

Those who sustained injuries were Noor Saleem, Gull Saleem, Muhammad Khan, Ghulam Shabbir, Akbar Ali, Najib and Shabbir. All were rushed to Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital Fateh Jang for treatment.
Nonetheless, a staff officer of Regional Police Officer (RPO) Akhtar Umar Hayyat Lalyka told The Nation that three people including two army officers died in the blast while four others sustained injuries.

Heavy contingent of police, Pakistan Army and officials of other law enforcement agencies cordoned off the blast site.
The suicide hit occurred in the jurisdiction of Fateh Jang Police Station. A team of bomb disposal squad (BDS) of Pakistan Army reached the spot and collected evidence. The body parts (head and leg) of suicide bomber were also recovered and sent for forensic examination. A security official, seeking anonymity, said that the suicide bomber appeared to be an Uzbek.
According to details, the attack took place at 9:15am when a suicide bomber targeted army's white-coloured double cabin which was on a routine patrol with four personnel including two military officers on board.

Lt-Col Arshad and three civilians including the rickshaw driver were killed on the spot while the other military officer Lt-Col Zahir Shah and seven others sustained critical injuries in the blast.
All were shifted to hospital where Lt-Col Zahir Shah succumbed to death. The condition of other injured was also critical.
The explosion was heard miles away, creating panic. An eyewitness said the suicide bomber was aged between 16 to 17.
"The suicide bomber was hiding in bushes near the railway track. As the vehicle of military officers reduced its speed on the railway crossing, the suicide bomber swiftly ran towards the vehicle and within no time exploded his vest with a bang," he added.
Another eyewitness added that the rickshaw driver's two brothers travelling along were maimed.
Army officers and personnel of other LEAs and BDS took over the scene and collected evidence.
A detailed search operation was also launched by LEAs in nearby localities of the blast site including hotels, restaurants and houses but no arrest was made.

The suicide bombing took place on a route used by containers for supplying food and other equipment to Nato forces stationed in Afghanistan.
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa tweeted after the blast, "Two military officers and three civilians were killed today when a suicide bomber hit their vehicle near Rawalpindi." He also named the martyred officers.
Meanwhile, funeral of Col Muhammad Zahir and Colonel Arshad Hussain was offered in Chaklala Garrison.
PM Nawaz Sharif, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Rashad Mehmood and a large number of military personnel and people from all walks of life attended funeral.

Later, the martyrs' bodies were sent to their ancestral towns where they will be buried with full military honour.
Agencies add: A spokesman for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack.
TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said the suicide bombing near Fateh Jang was carried out by TTP attackers to protest 'the killing of seven TTP activists in Karachi' and 'the killing of Taliban prisoners in jail'.

The bombing comes in the wake of military action and airstrikes in the North Waziristan tribal region.
The attack is also likely to cast another blow to the currently hampered peace process with the TTP.
The two parties had even managed to agree on a ceasefire which lasted for 40 days but wasn't renewed in the wake of bomb blasts in parts of the country.

 

[nrupatunga]

Pak Taliban splits over leaders' 'narrow objectives'

Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday suffered a major split as leading commanders of the banned outfit formed a splinter group, accusing its leadership of promoting personal and narrow objectives. Leaders of the new faction 'TTP Jamatul Ahrar' said that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan leadership was promoting personal and narrow objectives. The new faction's chief Maulana Qasim Khurasani said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Tahirul Qadri are no different from the current political rulers.

 

[nrupatunga]

Pakistan's bewildering array of militants

Shahidullah Shahid, as he was known, was the third TTP spokesman to part company with the leadership in recent months.

Before him, Azam Tariq left with the Mehsud faction of Khan Said Sajna that quit the TTP in May. Another predecessor, Ehsanullah Ehsan, became the chief spokesman for a group of Mohmand tribesmen that goes by the name Jamaat-e-Ahrar.

This splintering of the TTP shows that like any other social entity, large and geographically inclusive militant groups also contain sub-groups.

Back in September when the spokesman of the Pakistani army blamed an unknown group of militants - the al-Shura - for carrying out the October 2012 attack on education activist Malala Yousafzai, few eyebrows were raised.

After nearly 35 years of conflict involving non-state actors, Pakistanis are used to insurgent groups breaking from the herd to launch an attack which grabs the headlines, often under one of those spiritually inspiring names from the Islamic texts.

In most cases, they disappear from the scene just as quickly.

The trend started in the post-9/11 period, when elements within the militant network that were uprooted from Afghanistan started to hit targets in Pakistan.

These groups comprised fighters from the Pakistani tribal militants, the Punjabi Taliban, Central Asians, Arab fighters and militants from East Asia. Most of them gravitated towards the umbrella militant alliance called the TTP which was formed in 2007.

The earliest such group to make headlines was Harkatul Mujahideen al-Almi, which was blamed for a string of attacks in Karachi in 2002, including an assassination attempt on then President Pervez Musharraf, the bombing of the Sheraton hotel and a car bomb explosion outside the US consulate.

The group's name was similar to that of a major Kashmir-focused Punjabi Taliban group, but the addition of a suffix - al-Almi, or international - appeared to give it wider scope.

It faded away soon afterwards and has not been heard of since.

In 2004, a group calling itself Jundullah surfaced with an audacious ambush of the Karachi Corps commander. Then it took an eight-year sabbatical. Soon after it re-emerged it seemed to fall out with the TTP over who carried out the 2013 killing of nine foreign climbers on Nanga Parbat.

Jundullah claimed the credit for itself, but the TTP said a specially established unit called Jundul Hafsa had done it. Police in Karachi have blamed some recent attacks on Jundullah, but the group itself has made no comment.

As for Jundul Hafsa, it has turned out to be another one-hit wonder, at least so far.

Other short-lived groups include the Asian Tigers and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Almi (LeJA), another group with a familiar name but a differentiating suffix.

Both were briefly in the news during the spring of 2010.

Apparently, the Asian Tigers claimed that they had captured two former ISI officials and a British journalist of Pakistani origin. Later, one of the ISI men was beheaded for "spying".

Some weeks after the killing, there were reports of a series of attacks in North Waziristan in which two top leaders of the Asian Tigers were said to have been gunned down by someone calling himself the chief of LeJA.

This man himself was killed along with two others by unknown gunmen two months later. The killers left a note written on a TTP letterhead accusing the dead men of kidnapping former ISI officials who "during their active service had been kind to Taliban".

Make of all that what you will - it's not straightforward.

More recently, the group calling itself Jamaat-e-Ahrar (JA) has broken away from the TTP.

It is not clear if JA is some kind of successor to a TTP-linked group called Ahrarul Hind, which represented those elements within the TTP who believe in the "final battle for India" in which, according to them, a Muslim victory was foretold by Prophet Mohammad.

The recent launching of al-Qaeda's South Asia wing is seen by many as a continuation of this strand of militant thought.

All these groups seem to have grown from a common source - the Afghan mujahideen of the 1980s and their Arab and non-Arab allies who later morphed into al-Qaeda and the TTP.

This process was born in the shadows of a military regime that ruled Pakistan during the 1980s and hosted a seven-party alliance of Afghan mujahideen - called the Peshawar Seven - to destabilise Kabul under Soviet occupation.

The regime's ideological tilt created room for fundamentalist groups to dominate the Afghan jihad, ultimately giving rise to the Taliban movement in 1994.

By 1996, when Taliban had captured Kabul and put an end to the Afghan civil war, the Arab Wahhabi groups and Salafists who had earlier left for Africa, the Caucasus and the Balkans began to pour back into the Pakistan-Afghanistan region, thereby completing the toxic mix that has characterised local militancy in the region.

Since 9/11, the number and numerical strength of these groups has multiplied, and many of them have Pakistan - an ally in the US-led "war on terror" - near the top of their hit-list.

Earlier this year, Pakistan's interior minister Chaudhry Nisar told parliament the main TTP movement included more than 35 groups. Later, a security policy document listed around 60 groups that successive Pakistani governments had proscribed since the late 1990s.

But there are dozens of others - all vying for limelight and funds.

Most of them have local interests. They are natives of the areas under their control, and tend to organise into regional groups to form territorial entities. They are often named after their top commander or their area of operation, such as the Mullah Nazir group, or the Mohmand Taliban.

Others have broader ideological aims.

They mostly comprise fighters from Punjab province with a background in the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) which exists to wipe out Shia Muslims. These fighters have links with al-Qaeda and its affiliates, especially the TTP and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

They move in and out of larger groups either due to tactical or operational reasons, ideological considerations or internal group rivalries.

Many shine for brief periods, then fade away only to re-emerge in new avatars.

 

[sorcerer]

Pakistan's bewildering array of militants

In essence Pokingsatan has all the flavours of terrorists..
sad,

 

[singleboy56]

Pak army is fighting a successful war against Taliban in Tribal areas of Pakistan.

 

[sorcerer]

Islamic State Defections Fracture Pakistan Taliban


In an audio statement released last week, the former Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid announced that he and five other commanders from the terror group have given the bay'ah (oath of allegiance) to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-styled "caliph" of the group that describes itself as the Islamic State (IS), and is also known as ISIS and ISIL. This is the first public defection of commanders from the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban groups to IS.

Their defection portends further divisions within Pakistan's jihadist community, which has rapidly splintered since the killing of the TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud last fall in a U.S. drone strike. These divisions could result in heightened violence between anti-state jihadist groups in Pakistan. But Pakistan is also likely to see a rise in both sectarian and overall violence. Down the road, there is a risk that Pakistan's disparate jihadist groups could consolidate into a united front, even if the probability of such a scenario is low at present.

None of the TTP commanders who have defected to IS are major figures. They do not command sizable forces. But their standing within the region could be enhanced as a result of their association with IS. Some Pakistani observers claim that the IS brand is increasingly popular with younger, rank-and-file jihadists. Indeed, the al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban brands are two decades old. Shahid and his allies could see a surge in their ranks as a result of their association with IS.

While Shahid has given the oath of allegiance to al-Baghdadi, it's unclear whether he has been accepted as a member of IS. In his audio statement, Shahid said that he had given the oath of allegiance to al-Baghdadi on three previous occasions via a number of emissaries, but still awaits a response. Evidently, al-Baghdadi has yet to respond affirmatively to Shahid's overtures, though the reasons for his silence are unclear. It may be that IS has yet to develop an actual strategy for South Asia, though another South Asian jihadist group, Ansar al-Tawhid fi Bilad al-Hind defected from the al-Qaeda orbit into the IS world, but it is India and Afghanistan-centric.

Meanwhile, the core leadership of the two major Pakistani Taliban factions, the TTP and its Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group (TTP-JA) are currently hedging between supporting al-Qaeda and IS – the two major transnational jihadist fronts. Both groups have issued statements calling on al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, and IS to reconcile. They will likely continue to issue statements of support for IS that fall short of making an oath of allegiance to the group.

Both regional and sectarian dynamics tie the TTP and TTP-JA to the Afghan Taliban. The Afghan Taliban, TTP, TTP-JA, and most other Pakistani jihadist groups come from the Sunni subsect known as the Deobandis. And a common attribute of Deobandi militant groups is their nominal allegiance to Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, who holds the title of amir-ul-mumineen (commander of the faithful). Mullah Omar has a quasi-caliph status, and were the TTP and TTP-JA to declare allegiance to al-Baghdadi, this would likely nullify their allegiance to Mullah Omar.

IS is ascendant in the Middle East and al-Qaeda has been weakened in South Asia. But the Afghan Taliban finds itself in a favorable position as the United States completes the withdrawal of its combat forces this year. It has a decent chance of seizing significant portions of southern and eastern Afghanistan from the Kabul government in the coming years. And so the TTP and TTP-JA cannot afford a hostile relationship with the Afghan Taliban, which could very well be in control of their backyard.

Major commanders associated with the TTP and the TTP-JA are certainly discomfited by the defection of mid-level commanders to IS, which poses a potential threat to their hold over their respective fiefdoms inside Pakistan. They will have to take active measures to contain these new competitors. This containment strategy could involve direct violence against pro-IS commanders, as well as seeking to outdo them in attacks against the Pakistani state and religious minorities. The prime leadership of the TTP and TTP-JA has avoided public criticism of IS. Similarly, they may be reluctant to attack outfits that have moved into IS's orbit. While this is a battle they may hope not to fight, it may also be one they cannot avoid.

The six TTP commanders who have moved into IS's orbit come from the central region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. This region, in particular the Kurram Agency, was hit by a full-scale sectarian war from 2007-11. While violence there has been reduced significantly, the major militant commanders in this region remain at-large. Undoubtedly, they will work to prevent encroachment by IS-aligned forces in their areas. At the same time, though, given IS's extreme anti-Shia focus, both the TTP and IS-aligned militants could once again renew sectarian violence in central-FATA and KP.

While the threat of Sunni-Shia sectarian violence elevates, so too does the potential for intra-Sunni sectarian tensions. Curiously, Shahid's audio statement suggested that he is now styling himself as a Salafi, the puritanical sect to which al-Baghdadi belongs. Shahid's statement was released by a media outlet called al-Muwahideen (The Monotheists), a terminology that is particularly indicative of a Salafi bent, given its fervent opposition to all sorts of shirk (polytheism or association of partners with God).

While al-Qaeda is also a Salafi jihadist group, it has had an alliance of convenience with militant organizations from the Deobandi subsect. Indeed, the amir of its new South Asia affiliate is a Deobandi cleric. And Shahid's apparent transition to Salafism may indicate that a sectarian conversion is perhaps a prerequisite for Pakistani jihadist groups to associate themselves with IS. The Deobandis as well as the many Deobandi militant clerics and seminaries will not find this congenial.

The Salafi factor raises the issue of Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT), which perpetrated the 2008 Mumbai attacks. LeT comes from the Ahl-e Hadis sect, which is effectively the South Asian equivalent of the Salafis. And so while the LeT prime organization is likely to remain aligned with the Pakistani security apparatus, there is potential for low-to-mid-level fighters from LeT to defect and join IS, moving from one Salafi jihadist group to another, seeing IS as a more authentic jihadist force – one that is not "polluted" by a partnership with a "secular" state like Pakistan.

Jihadist groups in South Asia are in the midst of a major transitional phase that is taking place against a backdrop of a global jihad that itself is in a state of flux. Old alliances and relationships will be tested. Still, senior commanders with the TTP and TTP-JA are likely to publicly maintain a polite disposition toward IS while affirming their loyalty to the Afghan Taliban. Maulvi Fazlullah, the amir of the weakened TTP, issued an audio statement this weekend in which he renewed his allegiance to Mullah Omar. The TTP-JA is more likely than the TTP to ally with IS, but its spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan will probably continue to tease the media and other observers with statements that adulate IS but baulk at formally associating with the group. For the TTP-JA, its primary goal is to supplant the TTP as the major umbrella organization for anti-state jihadists in Pakistan. And so it will seek to maintain good ties with all regional and transnational jihadist outfits as long as possible. But if the impact of this small group of IS defectors is a wave rather than a ripple, then the TTP-JA, in particular, may have to abandon its diplomatic balancing act and choose a side.

Arif Rafiq (@arifcrafiq) is an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute and president of Vizier Consulting, LLC, which provides strategic guidance on Middle East and South Asian political and security issues.


Islamic State Defections Fracture Pakistan Taliban | The Diplomat

 

[nrupatunga]

Was about to post on this topic here on this thread. But then noticed that there's already a thread.

Taliban attack Army School in Peshawar - DFI Thread

 

[Kshatriya87]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/world/asia/how-the-pakistani-taliban-became-a-deadly-force.html

. Who are the Pakistani Taliban?

A. The Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, is a loose and increasingly divided umbrella organization that once represented roughly 30 groups of militants. The group was officially founded in 2007 by a prominent jihadi commander, Baitullah Mehsud, and for years it and allied groups like Al Qaeda have been based in the Pashtun tribal areas in northwestern Pakistan, particularly in North and South Waziristan.

Many Pakistani Taliban commanders fought in Afghanistan as part of the movement that swept to power in Kabul. When American forces ousted that movement in 2001, many of its leaders fled across the border into Pakistan. The Pakistanis among them played host to their Afghan counterparts — as well as hundreds of fighters from Al Qaeda — providing them with shelter, logistical support and recruits.

One of the 132 students who were killed at a school in Peshawar as nine gunmen wreaked havoc with grenades and suicide vests.


A 2008 photo showed Hakimullah Mehsud, center, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, who was said to have been killed.

Under pressure by the United States, the Pakistani Army made tentative efforts to dismantle those sanctuaries in 2003 and 2004, but it was too late. The tribal militiamen, enriched and radicalized by their Qaeda guests, chafed under the army's attempts to impose control.

Baitullah Mehsud, right, in 2004 in South Waziristan. Credit A. Majeed/A.F.P. — Getty Images
They sometimes cooperated in cease-fire agreements with the Pakistani military, only to renege months later. Under Mr. Mehsud, the Taliban started to attack the Pakistani security forces and government, even within the country's major cities. Soon, they openly declared their goal of imposing their will across pakistan.

The United States designated the Pakistani Taliban a terrorist organization in September 2010.

Q. What relationship do the Pakistani Taliban have to the Afghan Taliban?

A. The group owes allegiance to the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and cooperates closely with the Afghan movement in its insurgency in Afghanistan, providing men, logistics and rear bases for the Afghan Taliban. It has trained and dispatched hundreds of suicide bombers from Pakistan's tribal areas.

A truck bomb explosion left the the six-story Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in flames in September 2008. Credit Farooq Naeem/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The movement shares a close relationship with the Haqqani Network, the most hard-core affiliate of the Afghan Taliban, which has been behind repeated suicide attacks in and around Kabul and eastern Afghanistan. The groups also cooperate and provide haven for Qaeda operatives, including Al Qaeda's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The wide extent of militant cooperation in the tribal areas has complicated matters for the Pakistani military intelligence agency, which has long provided support for the Afghan-focused Taliban, even while trying to fight the Pakistani Taliban in recent years.

Q. What are the most significant attacks claimed by the Pakistani Taliban?

A. The Pakistani Taliban and affiliated militant groups have mounted a long series of devastating attacks in Pakistan's cities over the years.

Pakistani soldiers moved Malala Yousafzai to an army hospital in Peshawar after Pakistani Taliban militants attacked her in the Swat Valley last year. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
One of their most significant attacks in 2014 was an audacious siege of the Karachi international airport in June. The attack, in which a group of 10 attackers fought security forces for hours and killed 13 people, represented the final straw for Pakistan's military. Within days, an extensive military air and ground assault began against Taliban leaders headquartered in North Waziristan. It is that offensive that a Taliban spokesman said led to the retaliatory militant attack in Peshawar on Dec. 16 that killed dozens of Pakistani schoolchildren and teachers.

In September 2013, the Pakistani Taliban unleashed one of their deadliest attacks ever, sending suicide bombers to the historic All Saints Church in Peshawar, a symbol of cooperation between Muslims and Christians. All told, at least 120 people died in the attack and its aftermath, which refocused attention on the Taliban's persecution of religious minorities. The attack was ordered even as the Pakistani government and Taliban leaders were exploring peace talks.

In 2012, the Pakistani Taliban shot Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani schoolgirl in the Swat Valley, for advocating the education of girls. Ms. Yousafzai went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 and has become a worldwide symbol of the group's indiscriminate violence and subjugation of women and girls. She and her family live in England, in part because the Pakistani Taliban have vowed to attack her again.

Through the years, the militants have also hit Pakistani military and intelligence targets, including a suicide bombing in the canteen of Pakistan's elite special forces commandos, the Special Services Groups, and a hostage-taking inside the army's General Staff Headquarters in Rawalpindi. The Pakistani Taliban were also behind fatal bomb blasts on softer targets like the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in September 2008 and the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar in 2009.

Baitullah Mehsud is also thought to have been behind the suicide bombing that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.

Under Hakimullah Mehsud, the group demonstrated a close alliance with Al Qaeda. He claimed a role in the suicide bombing by a Jordanian double agent that killed seven C.I.A. officials and a Jordanian intelligence official at Camp Chapman in eastern Afghanistan in December 2009, mounted in revenge for the killing of Baitullah Mehsud. The Taliban disseminated video footage showing Mr. Mehsud beside the bomber before the attack.

Mr. Mehsud later trained Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in New York City in 2010.

Q. What is the state of the Taliban's leadership?

A. The Pakistani Taliban group is now nominally led by Maulana Fazlullah, a jihadi leader thought to be in hiding on the Afghan side of the border. But the organization has been under pressure from a military offensive in North Waziristan since June 2014, and the main group has suffered at least two major schisms and several bouts of deadly infighting, as rival leadership factions have differed over the group's direction.

Yet Mullah Fazulullah was seen as a possible peacemaker within Pakistan's militant firmament when he was chosen to lead the Taliban after the previous leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed in an American airstrike in November 2013.

Mr. Mehsud was the Taliban's most flamboyant leader. He was a close aide and deputy to the Pakistani Taliban's founder, Baitullah Mehsud, coming to prominence through a series of daring attacks. He rose to supreme leadership after an American drone strike killed Baitullah Mehsud in August 2009.

 

[nrupatunga]

Rediff uvacha

Arrest warrants issued for TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah, spokesman Shahidullah Shahid and nine others for storming the Karachi airport in June, according to the Pak publication Dawn.

The Pakistan Army has escalated its offensive against local and foreign militants in the northwestern tribal region in the wake of the recent attack on Peshawar's Army Public School that killed over 140 people, most of them children.

 

[prohumanity]

Pak army is fighting a successful war against Taliban in Tribal areas of Pakistan.

Really ! I heard your crazy General Musharraf following dictats from wash DC wants to still, retain Taliban as "strategic assets" to trouble India and Afghanistan. CNN and many zion outlets are still trying to prop him up so that the old game of using good terrorists to achieve strategic aims remain intact.
US+Saudi+Paki Mily Axis of /// and their favorite proxy warriors...so called "good Taliban"

 

[Free Karma]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1524809921130547

This guy is bonkers lol. Adnan Rasheed (guy in the video) was supposedly killed in an airstrike, so not sure if that was not killed, or if this is an old video that is being released now.

 

[nixin]

End of Ceasefire:
TTP has claimed the responsibility for eliminating two occupational forces personnels in Chadrar, District Tank, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

 

[Super Flanker]

(Update with regards to TTP):2 FC killed yesterday in north Waziristan ..mentioned in commet below
yesterday TTP claim 3 attack in north Waziristan and chitral
casualty hidden by ISPR