File photo of the debris left after a suicide bombing in Islamabad
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)-claimed suicide bombing in Islamabad last week, which killed a police officer and injured civilians and cops alike, is an extension of the militant group’s activity in the north and northwest where it has local rebellious support. It also isn’t isolated; within days of the bombing, a string of attacks across Balochistan pointed to a dangerous, rising trend.
On Dec. 25, various parts of Balochistan were targeted in terror incidents, with five security personnel including a captain martyred in a roadside bombing at Kahan claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and a sepoy martyred in a separate gunfight, along with several civilian casualties. The incidents, coming so close together, lead one to consider “links” between the two waves of terrorism, especially in light of reports that the TTP might be forging an alliance with the BLA.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, has suffered the highest number of TTP-claimed attacks this year, with 96 soldiers martyred and at least 280 others injured. The provincial police department has separately confirmed the deaths of 82 personnel. In the past, when Pakistan was in the midst of the ‘war on terror,’ security forces responded to militant excesses by using helicopter gunships and artillery to kill scores of terrorists. This wave’s reaction has, for now, been more restrained, with security forces opting for targeted, intelligence-based operations in a bid to oust the resurgent TTP.
In 1947, the British Raj bequeathed to Pakistan a tightly administered state. But next-door Afghanistan was still “uncentralized” and couldn’t be called a normal state. It couldn’t prevent penetration of its territory and couldn’t collect taxes. But after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the West swooped in for its proxy war, and Pakistan’s facilitation resulted in it losing its own writ. Karachi was literally taken over by terrorist groups operating from Afghanistan and Iran and continues to be crippled by street crime using the same methods of extortion that terrorists use to keep themselves financially afloat.
Pakistan’s efforts to counter terrorism remain lacking. The National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism, and its affiliated National Counter-Terrorism Authority, have boasted little success to restore state authority thus far. Adding to the woes is a Balochistan that was never “normalized” as a province of Pakistan and the erstwhile tribal areas that were not “mainstreamed” until their merger with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in 2018, leaving them at the mercy of tribal warlords for much of their history.
The resurgence of terrorism shows that several satrapies of terror remain adjacent to major cities, with locals repeatedly lamenting extortion from militants as the police watch on. Unfortunately, despite years of military operations and “mainstreaming” efforts, Pakistan today is nowhere near realizing the “normalization” of these vast regions.