As the terrorist attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have intensifiedacross the country, a TTP leader denied any support from the Afghan Talibansaying ‘we are fighting war from within the territory of Pakistan.
In an interview with CNN, Pakistani Taliban leader Noor Wali Mehsud blamedthe ceasefire’s breakdown on Islamabad, saying it “violated the ceasefireand martyred tens of our comrades and arrested tens of them.”
On question whether the Afghan Taliban was now helping his group, the TTPleader’s response was more guarded.
He answered: “We are fighting Pakistan’s war from within the territory ofPakistan; using Pakistani soil. We have the ability to fight for many moredecades with the weapons and spirit of liberation that exist in the soil ofPakistan.”
There are growing questions about the TTP’s reach and Islamabad’sperception of the situation does not match Mehsud’s.
In late November, the day after the ceasefire broke down, Islamabad againclaimed the TTP were using Afghan territory as a safe haven, sendingForeign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to express its concerns to Kabul.
The very next day the TTP claimed responsibility for an attack in theborder province of Quetta, where a suicide bomber had targeted a police vanhelping a Polio vaccination team, killing three and injuring 23.
Nevertheless, cross border Afghan/Pakistani government tensions arebuilding and came to a deadly head again last week when Afghan forceslaunched an attack targeting civilian settlements near Chaman/Spin Boldakborder post, a vital commercial link between the two countries.
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Six people were killed and 17 injured. While there is no evidence of directinvolvement by the TTP – or at least, not yet – the end of the ceasefirehas clearly raised the temperature.
The situation is only getting more combustible, with the TTP this weekannouncing another three jihadi groups had joined their ranks, all fromalong the troubled Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, CNN reported.
A few days ago, the State Department said in its statement: “The UnitedStates is committed to using its full set of counterterrorism tools tocounter the threat posed by terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan,including al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan(TTP), as part of our relentless efforts to ensure that terrorists do notuse Afghanistan as a platform for international terrorism.”
Yet in his interview with CNN, Mehsud was defiant saying he “did not expectAmerica to take such action” against his group.
“America should stop teasing us by interfering in our affairs unnecessarilyat the instigation of Pakistan – this cruel decision shows the failure ofAmerican politics,” he said.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto is currently visiting the US and the TTPwas likely on the agenda when he met United Nations Secretary GeneralAntonio Guterres for a Security Council debate on the “maintenance ofinternational peace and security” on December 14. It will also likelyfeature in his talks with US administration officials in Washington, DC,which are scheduled for December 19.
