TTP presence in Gilgit Baltistan
Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), one part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir illegally occupied by Pakistan, is witnessing the growing influence and activity of the Pakistani Taliban. In early October 2022, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) briefly ‘abducted’ a Minister, Colonel (Retd.) Ubaidullah Baig as he was heading from Islamabad to Gilgit. While the Minister was released shortly thereafter following negotiations, the incident reflected the growing influence of the TTP in Gilgit Baltistan in Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). The TTP has already made its presence felt since last year, in the neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. This situation is causing some anxious moments in Islamabad, but there appears to be no effort to resolve the problem in this Shia-dominated region. Far more importantly, the resurgence of TTP signals a failure of the Pakistani state to tackle a new situation in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year.
Pertinently, the person behind the Minister’s abduction is Habibur Rahman, Gilgit-Baltistan’s most wanted TTP commander, who was accused of killing ten foreigners in Nanga Parbat in 2013. Rehman and his accomplices had blocked the road in Thak village of Chilas in Diamer on 8 October 2022, leaving travellers on both sides stranded, Dawn newspaper reported. Militants demanding the release of their jailed accomplices set up blockades on one of the major arteries linking Pakistan’s restive provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Gilgit-Baltistan.
It is ironic that for all the noise made in the Pakistan media about the kidnapping of the minister, Colonel Baig in his statement referred to the TTP as “assets of the country, and that despite the potential damage to Pakistan, they were being prepared for jihad in Kashmir”(voicepk.net, 12 October 2022). Colonel Baig reportedly said, “Taliban hamare assasse hain aur humain Kashmir mein jihad key liye inn ko tayyar karna hai,” said Colonel Ubaidullah while speaking on Aaj TV’s show ‘Spotlight’ with Munizae Jahangir. He added that “Toh issmein humain thora nuqsan uthane pare bhitoh koi maslanahin.” (The Taliban are our assets’ and we need to prepare them to wage jihad in Kashmir…So even if we have to bear the damages, there should be no problem). The minister himself revealed that the militants who had held him hostage, identified themselves as Mujahedeen Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan and were local TTP affiliates.
Munizae Jahangir’s show was aired on 10 October 2022, and Baig was kidnapped a couple of days prior to that from Babusar Road. Baig said on the show that the TTP affiliate had demanded the unconditional release of their men under detention in Gilgit Baltistan, as many of their compatriots had been released in Balochistan and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. These militants were detained after they had carried out the Nanga Parbat massacre of eleven foreign climbers at a high-altitude mountaineering camp on 23 June 2013. Dressed as GB Scouts, the killers had approached the climbers’ camp and killed all except two who were a little away from the scene. Among the killers was the militant commander Habibur Rehman, who was later arrested and imprisoned. Habibur Rehman ‘managed’ to escape two years later and went into hiding for six years. He returned to public life on 7 July 2021 and held an ‘open court’ at the Babusar polo ground where he demanded the government implement the agreement made two years earlier to release all the men involved in the attack.
The same group had claimed responsibility for setting on fire 12 schools in Diamer on 3 August 2018.The TTP is against any progressive activities of women, professes sharia law and undertakes such violent acts to show its relevance. Sadly, the Gilgit Baltistan administration is unable to control it. Recently, a girls’ school in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district was burned down (The Dawn, 8 November 2022) by a group of unknown miscreants. The arsonist kidnapped the school guard on duty and set the school on fire. Suraya Zaman, PTI women’s wing Vice President and Parliamentary Secretary for Education, Gilgit Baltistan condemned the attack and said it was a conspiracy to keep girl students away from education. Locals led by Shabeer Ahmed Qureshi (President of the Diamer Youth Federation) protested the incident and criticized the government for its inaction in catching the culprits.The Tribune newspaper reported that following the incident, hundreds of female students, and teachers from across the district staged a protest.They demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits, who had set the school on fire, and mete out severe punishment to the “terrorists”.
This part of PoJK has in the past witnessed extreme terrorist violence. Apart from the Nanga Parbat incident, a year earlier, a series of attacks took place, in which people were pulled out of buses and killed. These included incidents in Kohistan and Mansehra. Most of the victims were Shia. On 17 March 2016, at least two soldiers and two women were killed in a suicide explosion in the Smagal area of Darel Valley in the Diamer District of the Gilgit-Baltistan region. Security Forces had laid siege to the house of a ‘commander’ of TTP’s Diamer faction, identified as Hazrat Noor. During the siege, “The terrorist blew himself up to avoid arrest. Besides his wife and daughter, two soldiers were also killed in the blast.” The slain militant also reportedly had opened fire at the forces before blowing himself up.
Amidst the growing TTP influence in the region, the people of this occupied region also suffer from the complete indifference of the Pakistani State. Residents of Skardu town have been facing a severe power crisis for up to 21 hours, causing problems for all businesses.The same situation obtains in Gilgit Baltistan, where residents are facing an average of 10 hours of load shedding. Baad-e-Shimal, a local newspaper in Gilgit Baltistan reported that the people were facing multiple challenges including load-shedding, electricity outages, inflation and the wheat crisis. The GilgitBaltistan-based, Awami Action Committee (AAC) held a symbolic protest in Gilgit city against unannounced load shedding and other issues. The AAC rejected the government’s decision to end the flour dealership and make sale points. It was said that over 600 families would be forced to protest if the flour dealership is annulled. They further claimed that corruption would open if sale points are started and it will increase unemployment too.
Thus, the Shia people of Gilgit Baltistan have been facing the complete indifference of the Pakistani state. The only role of the Pak deep state has been to create more instability in the region, starting from sectarian conflict in the 1980s to more recently, terrorist violence instigated by the TTP. On top of this the wheat crisis and frequent load shedding has caused enormous hardship to the people of the region. Perhaps as the Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh recently said, India’s northward march will move towards Gilgit Baltistan. Once this happens the people of the region may see the benefits of development.
