Pakistan’s Terror Troubles: Frankenstein Monster out of control?
According to The Singapore Post, terrorists who received training from Pakistan have turned their weapons and bombs on their teacher (Pakistan) and are taking every opportunity to kill their own mentor.
The Singapore Post reports that Pakistan was shaken when a suicide bomber decimated a mosque in Peshawar’s Police Lines, killing about 100 people overall, mostly police officers. The incident has rocked the Shehbaz Sharif-led administration to its very foundation.
The bombing within a Peshawar police compound has demonstrated that terrorism has no respect for religion and that terrorists are always evil. The Tehreek-e-Taliban of Pakistan (TTP) took credit for the crime.
The TTP was set up in Pakistan in 2007 after terror groups agreed to support the Afghan Taliban, who were fighting United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The TTP terrorists used to hide in Pakistan’s tribal northwest and also had sanctuary in Afghanistan, The Singapore Post reported.
When the Taliban returned to Afghanistan after the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government, some thousands of people with weapons were allowed to enter Pakistan as the rulers claimed that they were ‘good Taliban’ and would work according to the law and would be rehabilitated. Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had stated that his government wanted to resettle the Taliban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to The Singapore Post.
The terrorist group in November 2021, ended a ceasefire with the Pakistan government after the failure of talks, hosted by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers in Kabul.
Following the end of the ceasefire, the TTP stepped up attacks on Pakistani soldiers and police particularly targeting the police in KP and areas bordering Afghanistan, insurgents in Balochistan have also upped the ante after formalizing a nexus with the TTP.
According to The Singapore Post, Pakistan security forces are finding it hard to tackle the terrorists, whom they groomed in their backyard. The terrorists carrying out a suicide attack in the high-security police lines is an indication that even the police are helpless and can’t prevent the terrorists from carrying out major strikes.
The Shehbaz Sharif-led government blamed the Imran Khan-led government of providing a chance to terrorists to regroup and call the shots. The present Pakistan government claims that it shouldn’t be blamed for the terror attacks as it’s carrying the baggage of the past.
However, Shehbaz Sharif hasn’t made much of an effort to stop terrorism. According to an article in The Singapore Post, he has continued the tradition of the previous governments and has been utilising terrorism as a tool of state policy. The same research claims that terrorist strikes on Pakistani mosques, security facilities, and other locations are nothing new. Such attacks have been taking place in the neighbouring country for a while, but the leaders there don’t seem to care that their citizens are becoming victims of terrorists’ brutal deeds. By giving them sanctuary, weapons, and ammo as well as developing rehabilitation strategies for them, they continue to favour the terrorist organisations and their leaders.
