Terror attacks in Pakistan have increased manifold ever since the Taliban won back control of the state apparatus in Afghanistan during a lightning-fast offensive quite a month ago, consistent with data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal. The report showed that after the us military withdrew from war-torn Afghanistan and therefore the Taliban seized Kabul, deadly terrorist attacks in Pakistan increased to their highest level in additional than four years, signalling growing instability within the region that experts say could come to bite Islamabad.
As per its latest review, seen by the Bloomberg press agency – Pakistan saw a minimum of 35 terror attacks that killed 52 civilians in August alone, the very best since February 2017. Most of those attacks are attributed to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an offshoot terror outfit of the Taliban, which is believed to possess been ‘encouraged’ by the developments nearby . The South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) is that the largest website on terrorism and low-intensity warfare in South Asia; it creates the database and analytic context for research and analysis of all extremist movements within the region.
The TTP, alternatively mentioned because the ‘Pakistani Taliban’ features a stated aim to overthrow the govt in Islamabad by waging a violent campaign against the state. It maintains ties with several other terror outfits, including but not limited to al-Qaeda. consistent with experts, this fringe militant group was “emboldened further by what happened in Afghanistan”.
The terrorist organization had already been growing stronger much before things in Afghanistan with splinter groups merging over the past year approximately ,” Umar Karim, a visiting fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, told the Bloomberg agency over the phone.
Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the us Institute of Peace, said that although Pakistan isn’t talking about it openly, Islamabad cares about the re-emergence of the Pakistani Taliban threat, which had earlier been suppressed by a mixture of domestic military operations and US drone strikes.
The development comes amid a precarious situation for Pakistan, which was criticised heavily across global quarters for encouraging the Taliban offensive against the erstwhile Ashraf Ghani government in Afghanistan, within the hopes of gaining favour among the ranks of the new rulers in Kabul and keep its neighbours uncomfortable within the process. But thus far , the newfound Taliban regime has only led to more discomfort for Islamabad. The militants, after sweeping to power, freed several terrorists wanted by the Pakistan government from jails in Afghanistan.
Terrorists firing from Afghanistan killed two Pakistani soldiers and left many injured during a clash last month. Seven other soldiers died earlier in September when the Pakistani army attacked terrorists in South Waziristan, consistent with a press release sent by the army’s media wing.