EXTORTION RACKET OF TEHREEK-I-TALIBAN PAKISTAN

In Pakistan there are various ways in which terror groups and organisations ‘collect’
money for perpetuation of violence and terror. The groups mostly use hawala/hundi as a
medium of transferring huge amount of money while drug or narco money is a major
money churner. In addition abductions are done for ransom and religious donations are
channelized for terror activities by these terror groups operating freely in Pakistan. In case
of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), since the establishment of Taliban 2.0 in Afghanistan,
the group has been terrorizing people of Pakistan and extort money.

TTP has increased its rebellious activities in different parts of Pakistan after the Taliban
takeover of power in Afghanistan in August, 2021. Reportedly, TTP is extorting money
from influential and wealthy people in Pakistan with numbers having +93 code indicating
an Afghan SIM card. Since July, 2022, a provincial lawmaker, who requested
anonymityhas been frightened into sending the TTP sums totalingPKR 1.2 million.“Those
who don’t pay have to face the consequences. Sometimes they throw a grenade at their
door. Sometimes they shoot,” he said.

After the Taliban takeover in neighbouring Afghanistan, TTP racketeering has infested
Pakistan’s borderlands, locals say, with the group emboldened by its sister movement’s
success.An un-named provincial lawmaker stated that he has been forced to dispatch
over USD 5000 to the TTP.

In a more outward case, in October, 2022, TTP demanded 8 million in Pakistani currency
in ‘extortion’ from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister Atif Khan.The letter received by him
appeared to be from TTP Mardan, and claimed that Khan had been on ‘TTP Mardan’s
Most Wanted List’ for quite some time and it was finally his turn. “You know who we are
and what we want. We know you very closely and have all your data and records because
you are on TTP Mardan’s wanted list and your turn has come,” read the letter, adding
that in order to exit the list, the minister would have to fulfill their demands, or he would
lose his life.

As reported on November26, 2022, Swat community activist Ahmad Shah worryingly
stated, “They started the same old game: target killings, bomb blasts, kidnappings — and
making calls for extortion.” The blackmail network bankrolls the TTP, but also sows a crisis
of confidence in local government the militants seek to usurp in favour of Islamist rule.
Meanwhile, provincial lawmaker Nisar Mohmand estimates 80 to 95 per cent of well-off
residents in surrounding districts of Swat, are now blackmail victims.The extortion sum
payable is then well distributed, usually through an intermediary, before it is sent to the
TTP fighters whose presence haunt the mountains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Earlier, in the month of September, 2022, Arab News interviewed at least seven traders,
transporters and businesspeople who had received demands for protection money in
recent months. Six said the callers had identified themselves as militants belonging to the
TTP. It was unclear how many paid up. It further reported that, Taliban militants in
September, 2022, also kidnapped 10 employees of a telecom company and demanded
100 million in Pakistani currency for their release, according to a police report filed with
the local counterterrorism department.

It is a well-known fact that, TTP share its root with Afghan Taliban, but were most
powerful from 2007 to 2009, when they spilled out of the jagged belt splitting Pakistan
and Afghanistan and besieged the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa just 140 kilometres
north of Islamabad. The Pakistani military came down hard in 2014, after TTP militants
raided theArmy school in Peshawar school killing more than 150 people, mostly pupils.
The TTP were largely routed, their fighters fleeing to Afghanistan, especially in the
provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar where they were hunted by US-led forces. With
Afghanistan back under Taliban rule, it has become an “open shelter” for the TTP.

The threats of TTP are not empty. If traders refuse to pay extortion fees, the militants
place small bombs near their homes to scare them into yielding to their financial
demands. If they continue to refuse, militants either kill them in public or bomb their
houses. And traders are not the only targets: doctors, parliamentarians, and shopkeepers
from religious minorities in Peshawar have been extorted, forcing them to either pay
costly fees or relocate.The militants usually demand between 1 million to 10 million
Pakistani rupees (around USD 5,800 and USD58, 000 respectively).

Unfortunately, the inconsistency of Pakistan’s judicial system and its hollowness can be
explained by two separate cases. In the first instance, in December, 2021, the Lahore High
Court (LHC)’s division bench, headed by Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz, overturned the
conviction of a man, said to be associated with TTP, over charges of raising funds for the
organisation.The bench, setting aside the conviction, ordered to acquit Dawar Khan on an
appeal filed by him against the conviction handed down by a trial court earlier in 2021.

In the second case, in January, 2022, in LHC, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Ali
Baqar Naqvi stated, “inciting public to raise funds for ‘Jihad’ is not allowed to in an Islamic
state (Pakistan) as it is considered treason. It is the job of the state to collect national
funds for a declared war, if essential. The same cannot be raised by a person or any
organization”.

As expected, with Afghanistan back under Taliban 2.0, it has become an “open shelter”
for the TTP. Sheepishly, Pakistan has always claimed that TTP is present in Afghanistan
and uses the country’s soil against Pakistan. The Taliban, however, reject the claim.The
Taliban meanwhile hosted peace talks between TTP and the Pakistani government at least
twice after their domination of Afghanistan which failed to reach a conclusion.6 But, in reality, since Taliban’s return in Afghanistan, militant activity in Pakistan has spiked,
according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, with around 433 people killed.

Looking forward, it is improbable that the Afghan Taliban will take any action against the
TTP at the request of Pakistan. Considering the latest developments occurring beyond the
Durand Line, Pakistani establishment, (if it wants to save common people of tribal areas)
need to organise an accountable task force for an active border-management system with
stringentrules on cross-border movement; block Afghan telephone numbers, and crack
down on the local TTP sympathisers and criminal gangs that provide assistance to TTP
militants in extortion of money for Pakistani people. To increase communication between
extortion sufferers and the police, and impartfaith in law enforcement institutions, the
Pakistani government should set up a protected extortion reporting scheme that assures
safety of TTP’s victims.