Insurgents near Afghanistan's border region have stepped up attacks on security forces in northwestern Pakistan, threatening to resume their activities and return to lawlessness.
The ethnic Pashtun border region has for
years been a haven for insurgents who fled the US-led invasion in 2001. But the
Pakistani military destroyed the strongholds in an attack in 2014 and brought
most of the fighters into Afghanistan.
But since March, if the al-Qaeda-linked
Pakistani Taliban, when its Afghan Taliban allies establish peace there, are in
danger of losing sanctuaries along the border, they will be able to secure
Pakistani security. A wave of attacks on forces has continued.
In July, half a dozen small insurgent
factions joined forces to try to re-establish themselves in the border areas,
the Pakistan Taliban or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Mansoor Khan Mehsud, executive director of
the Islamabad-based FATA Research Center, said, "The group's capabilities
and military strength have increased, as has their reach."
In September, roadside bombs ranged from
sniper attacks, ambushes and the killing of residents accused of collaborating
with government forces.
Insurgents have killed at least 40
soldiers since March, according to official Reuters figures.
At least 109 people were killed’ in 67
attacks between January and July, according to the FATA Research Center.
"The TTP's reorganization is due to
its own activities and its links to groups such as al-Qaeda," said
Elizabeth Threlkeld, a former State Department official who now serves in
Pakistan and deputy director of the South Asia program in Washington. Is from
Victims Center
"If it continues to succeed, it could
once again provide significant support to international terrorist groups."
Unintended consequences
After 9/11, insurgent violence in Pakistan
escalated after pressure from the United States to sign the so-called "war
on terror", even though it had supported the Afghan Taliban for years.
The Pakistani government soon found itself
in the grip of a domestic Taliban attack, but the army managed to push it out
of the area in 2014, forcing the Pakistani Taliban into Afghanistan.
The fighting displaced millions of people,
but since then insurgent violence in Pakistan has largely ended.
But now there are growing concerns that
the escalation of Pakistani Taliban violence is an unannounced result of peace
efforts in neighboring Afghanistan.
In February, the Afghan Taliban and the
United States reached an agreement allowing the return of the American Taliban
to guarantee the Afghan Taliban that they would not harbor other insurgents.
The United Nations said in a report in
July that there were more than 6,000 Pakistani fighters in Afghanistan, most of
them affiliated with the TTP, who could go home if they lost their asylum.
"It's a matter of concern for
everyone," a Western security official based in Pakistan told Reuters on
condition of anonymity.
The Pakistani military did not respond to
a request for comment on the violence, but a spokesman said recently on Twitter
that the attacks were aimed’ at "pushing back the (Afghanistan) peace
process."
For those living in the area, insecurity
is once again becoming a problem.
The TTP issued a statement this week
urging residents to go "until peace returns."
"Our war against Pakistan continues
and you will continue to carry out attacks on a daily basis," the group
said.
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