Munir Ahmed<\/p>\n
Two days after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan called off the long-awaited \u201cLong March\u201d without any rational culmination, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has announced an \u201cend of a ceasefire with the government and has threatened new attacks country-wide.\u201d
\nThe national and international media have reported that the armed group has called off a truce agreed with the government in June this year, and has ordered their \u201cfighters to carry out attacks in the entire country.\u201d
\nThe TTP spokesperson, in his text messages to the media on Monday, has stated that military operations are ongoing against mujahideen in different areas. So, it is imperative for the TTP fighters to carry out attacks wherever they can in the entire country. This insane development emerged ahead of Pakistan\u2019s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar\u2019s Kabul visit on Tuesday, November 29.
\nIt is an opening of a new chapter of militancy in Pakistan. It took almost two decades previously to wipe off militancy from Pakistan. A huge cost was paid in terms of demilitarisation efforts, the destruction of infrastructure amounting to millions of dollars. Sadly, it cost about 80 thousand human lives and immense internal migration. Over two million were displaced from their hometowns. Once again, the menace is out there with full strength.
\nEarly August this year, military personnel reported the presence of some TTP men in Swat. No one can say for certain how and why TTP members had resurfaced in Swat as well as several other adjoining tribal districts. They started returning back to their hometowns after TTP-government negotiations began in Kabul, Afghanistan \u2013 much before any agreement. Tahir Khan, an expert on Afghanistan Affairs, has stated that it, therefore, remains unclear who, if anyone for that matter, allowed the militants to return before a formal deal had been reached.
\nNevertheless, KP chief minister Mahmood Khan welcomed the TTP fighters coming back to their hometowns, saying \u201cthey are free to go wherever they want, it is their own country.\u201d Some of his party lords and ministers too follow the suit. So, we can assume that there was a green signal from the PTI\u2019s provincial government to the TTP on their safe return to their homes. Remember, the PTI chief Imran Khan has been publicly supporting TTP and mujahideen since his early days in politics.
\nPakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), an Islamabad-based research organisation, has reported that through the end of October 2022, at least 65 such attacks took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that killed at least 98 people and wounded 75.
\nIn the mid of October, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Swat demanding protection against militants, a day after unidentified gunmen sprayed bullets at a school van, killing the driver and injuring two children. The protesters spent the whole night in the open at a square in the city centre, along with the body of the slain driver, Hussain Ahmad. They dispersed over 40 hours after the incident, only after the authorities promised to arrest the culprits and pay compensation to the driver\u2019s family.
\nThe residents\u2019 protest against the re-emergence of militancy in Swat was an utter reaction to how the KP chief minister had invited and welcomed to the province in August. Not in Swat alone, militant attacks have been observed in other parts of the province too, and beyond. Now, the TTP\u2019s announcement to go country-wide seems the beginning of the same old saga \u2013 a rewind of what had been happening two decades back.
\nTTP is a group of Pakistani \u201cmilitants\u201d that is ideologically aligned with the Afghan Taliban. It has charge-sheeted Pakistan military for \u201ca rising number of attacks,\u201d particularly in the Lakki Marwat district of Pakistan\u2019s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
\nThe TTP Monday statement reflected: \u201cWe submit to the people of Pakistan that we have repeatedly warned you and continued to be patient so that the negotiation process is not sabotaged at least by us, but the army and intelligence agencies do not stop and continue the attacks, so now our retaliatory attacks will also start across the country.\u201d
\nThe ISPR has yet to come up with a response as I am writing this piece on Tuesday. The TTP has been waging a rebellion against the state of Pakistan for more than a decade. It is considered an offshoot of the Afghan Taliban that briskly took over Afghanistan after the US troops abruptly left the country in haste. The group demands the imposition of hardline Islamic laws, the release of key members arrested by the government and a reversal of the merger of Pakistan\u2019s tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Certainly, not acceptable for the state institutions.
\nWhat disturbs is the timing of the TTP statement \u2013 just two days after the PTI, a pro-Taliban political party, called off the long march, rumours of Lt. General Faiz Hameed\u2019s resignation from service and taking over the command of the Pakistan army by the new chief \u2013 General Asim Munir. Against this backdrop, if this has actually to do anything with the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province? Or, if it was just a coincidence that KP chief minister Mahmood Khan was seen sitting just next to the PTI chief Imran Khan\u2019s final address to the \u201clong march rally?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Munir Ahmed Two days after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan called off the long-awaited \u201cLong March\u201d without any rational culmination, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has announced an \u201cend of a ceasefire with the government and has threatened new attacks country-wide.\u201d The national and international media have reported that the armed group has called off a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11046,3158,352,1838],"class_list":{"0":"post-298509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-militancy","8":"tag-munir-ahmed","9":"tag-threats","10":"tag-ttp"},"yoast_head":"\n