Pak Army’s malignant indulgence of TTP

The Pakistan Army has begun a systematic campaign to label the terrorist group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as supported by India to deflect the growing public criticism of its failure to deal with the terrorist menace on the western frontier.

Social media handles of the army’s proxies and media have been briefed to accuse India of supporting TTP in Afghanistan, a claim which falls flat on facts. The TTP is a protege of the Afghan Taliban, and has been so since 2007 when it came into existence. Since the Afghan Taliban was a traditional ally of the Pakistan Army, it is not wrong to assume that TTP too enjoyed the patronage of the army on and off over the past few decades.

The all-powerful, 600,000 strong army has so far failed to stop the TTP from attacking the security forces across Pakistan ever since in November when the militant group unilaterally decided to abandon the secret peace pact with the army. The TTP first threatened to cause mayhem in key cities which it did with suicidal blasts in Peshawar and Quetta. It then targeted the areas which were on the CPEC.

As the militant group gathered other splintered militant groups, it carried out audacious attacks across the border, in Chitral and now in Mianwali in Punjab. Mianwali is just 150 miles short of Islamabad or Rawalpindi. It is not the first such attack. It did so in February this year. The militant group is more organised and lethal than last year.

The Pakistan Army, on the other hand, is on a shaky wicket, mostly of its own making. For long, as long as the Afghan Taliban were `friends`, the army was only interested in finding ways to sign a truce pact with TTP which it did. Till date no one knows what the army compromised in terms of country’s security and sovereignty. But when the TTP, after the Taliban victory in Kabul, decided to up the ante and demanded control of the tribal areas, the army went on the backfoot and decided to take them but by then it was too late. The TTP had gathered enough cadre, weapons and support to call off the pact and threaten an all-out offensive against the state of Pakistan, particularly the army.

Even after the Peshawar mosque attack, in which over 100 persons were killed, the army remained divided over the TTP, treating it more as a `good Taliban`. Several more hundred security personnel deaths and civilian casualties, the

army had no clue whether the TTP had become the country’s number two enemy. When all their entreaties to the Afghan Taliban failed, the army had no chance but to take on the TTP through Intelligence Based operations. These operations continue like a slow fuse but have not yielded any tangible results as the Chitral, Mustang and Mianwali attacks have shown.

Having failed on all fronts against TTP, the army is now finding it easier to blame India for the attacks. General Asim Munir recently called TTP “proxies of the enemies of Pakistan and its people.“ The army has also launched all its proxy channels to label TTP as `India` ally as it hopes to deflect its increasing failure to counter terrorist attacks in different parts of Pakistan. There could be other reasons why the army is so lenient towards the TTP. Once, not long ago, the same army had used TTP to assassinate a former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, on possible return to Islamabad. Now another former Prime Minister is about to return for the election. And this former Premier, like Bhutto, is not friendly towards the Generals.