Who are the Tehrik-Taliban Pakistan and why are they important to Afghanistan-Pakistan relations?

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The Tehrik-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are a terrorist organisation that has caused a significant security risk to Pakistan and aided further destabilisation of Central Asia. So, who are this group and how has the retreat of American forces in Afghanistan benefitted this group? And, what are their goals?

The TPP is an alliance of Taliban militants which formed in 2007 as a unified front against the Pakistani military. The TTP was formed as a response to Pakistani military operations against Al-Qaeda related militants during the War on Terror in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a semi-autonomous region in Northwestern Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan. The region existed from 1947 until 2018 where it was merged with the neighboring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the 25^th amendment of the constitution of Pakistan.

From the beginning…

Tensions began in 1893 due to the Durand Line, a colonial border between Afghanistan and what is now Pakistan but then British India. The Pashtun people had primarily lived in this region and the Durand line cut through the Pashtun community, putting half the community into Afghanistan and the other half into British India, breaking apart community, culture and customs. Afghanistan refused to accept the border due to this breaking of communities and due to mistrust of the Afghan official who agreed to it.

The official, Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, was given his post as an official representation of Afghanistan by the British. Afghanistan argued that the Pashtuns should be governed in their own autonomous nation, whilst the British argued that the region had little value and that there would be no issue to dividing it as they did not understand the cultural importance of the land to the Pashtun people. Even in the division of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947, the Durand Line was not redrawn. It became the recognized border by Pakistan despite Afghan opposition.

The FATA lie along the Pakistani side of the Durand Line and in December of 2001, many Taliban leaders and Al-Qaeda terrorists took refuge in FATA where tribal laws and customs drove inter-tribal relations and people’s lives, rather than the Pakistani government. Veterans of Pakistani jihad and local militants who had fought alongside the Taliban in the 1990s provided protection in FATA for fellow Pashtuns and Al-Qaeda forces, providing them cover to then begin attacking American led NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani military then entered FATA due to pressure from the American military to hunt down Al-Qaeda members. The operation caused deeper resentment in the local Pashtun tribes who viewed the operation as an infringement on their autonomy and a violation of local custom. The local militants, who shared the radical interpretation of Islam with the Taliban, known as Deobandi, then banded together to confront the Pakistani state and its security forces, and so became the TTP.

What and why?

The TTP’s overall goal is to overthrow the elected Pakistani government and establish an emirate based on the alliance’s interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, known as the Deobandi ideology. Deobandi believe that strict adherence to Sharia is the path to salvation  and seek to emulate the times of Prophet Muhammed. Particularly, it upholds the belief that global holy war, or jihad, is the sacred duty to protect Muslims across the world and holds an opposition to any non-Islamic beliefs or ideas. 

The TTP is particularly famous for their anti-Shia stance, another branch of the Muslim faith which shares different beliefs about the Prophet Muhammed to the TTP’s Sunni Islamic belief system. The Deobandi ideology is the basis for this stance, as they consider Shia Muslims to not be Muslim as they do not subscribe to the same interpretations of Islam. 

The TTP, like other Deobandi military groups, has been protected and aided by the Pakistani government as a means to an end for policy objectives in Afghanistan and Indian controlled Kashmir. Pakistan has sometimes turned a blind eye to the movements of the TTP and has also indirectly funded the TTP through their aid of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

However, the TTP have turned their attention towards Pakistan, becoming the deadliest militant organization operating in Pakistan. The TTP’s terrorist acts have caused the most deaths in Pakistan over the last decade. They are also known for their indiscriminate killing of civilians, including women and children.

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Taliban (Afghanistan) and Taliban (Pakistan)?

Both the Taliban and TTP are based in Deobandi ideology and share the beliefs that women should be restricted to the home and that Shia Muslims are not Muslim. The TTP is also an umbrella organization with a leader at the helm.  The group has also established links with other militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Punjabi Taliban. At its inception, the TTP claimed to be an extension of the Afghan Taliban with a similar goal to the Afghan Taliban of establishing an Islamic emirate but in Pakistan rather than Afghanistan. In 2018, the TTP also changed tactics in its 2018 manifesto, which moved the TTP from indiscriminate killing in order to incite fear, to instead redirect their killing to Pakistani military personnel and intelligence operatives.

Although sharing the Taliban denomination with the Taliban movement and being closely allied, the two groups are quite different with separate ideologies and command structures. The Taliban have however acted as mediators between the TTP and the government of Pakistan during peace talks, particularly as they seek to legitimize their role as the government of Afghanistan.

The now

Following the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, the TTP has become emboldened despite the significant strides made by the Pakistani government to quash the group. The return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021 led to the release of TTP prisoners held by the old Afghani government, providing a resurgence of members and support.

The TTP has also benefitted from the advanced weaponry left by Americans in Afghanistan and seized by the Taliban in 2021 which has increased their operational capabilities. Ten militant groups also opposed to the state of Pakistan have merged with the TTP.  Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) also share ties to the TTP despite the ISKP being created by dissatisfied TTP militants. This tie particularly emboldens the TTP as ISKP has been marked as having the potential to launch a terror attack in the West.

The increased capabilities of the TTP are the opposite of the hopes of the Pakistani government, who believed that the reinstallation of the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan would curb the TTP’s activities. The Pakistan government believed that the Taliban would take back the Afghan refugees living in Pakistan and neutralize anti-Pakistan elements in Afghanistan. This never occurred. Pakistan has therefore taken matters into their own hands, launching military operations across the border into Afghanistan with the aim of neutralizing TTP militants.

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The TTP are a significant obstacle in Pakistan-Afghanistan bilateral relations and stand in the way of crucial regional cooperation. Effective cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan could aid both countries in overcoming shared concerns such as border security, trade, water resources, regional connectivity, whilst reducing mistrust and fostering peace in the region. 

 The Taliban deny arming and fostering bases for the TTP, despite known TTP training camps operating in Afghanistan having opened earlier this year. However, Pakistan is known for deflecting the blame for the TTP’s operations to neighboring Afghanistan whilst regularly citing the TTP as a reason to violate Afghanistan sovereignty.  Pakistan’s approach to terrorism echoes the classic terrorist policy played out by the United States of America and how they operated through the War on Terror: play the strongman game of violating sovereignty whilst maintaining an ambivalence, playing the line between friend and enemy through necessary cooperation all while maintaining mistrust. 

So, with the Taliban looking to play a legitimate role in the central Asian region, it looks like the TTP and their protection will be used as a bargaining chip in the Afghan-Pakistan relationship. With the desire to legitimize, will the Taliban cut ties with the TTP like they are beginning to with other terrorist organizations, or are the TTP an ally worth fighting for?