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The Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is an extremist terrorist group in Pakistan that formed in the year of 2007. Seeing that the Afghan Taliban was formed years before 2007, TTP can be thought of as the Taliban movement of Pakistan. This breakdown makes sense because there has not been true unification within this group, instead, they are different sectors within the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan that work with each other. Before the beginning of this group working together, the individuals within these sectors were supporting Afghan Taliban’s war against the United States in 2001. However, Pakistan’s military began to target groups that were trying to escape from the war, which caused the sectors to separate from Afghan’s Taliban and work together against Pakistan’s military, which is when the Taliban movement of Pakistan began. Furthermore, their goals now include to implement an Islamic caliph and Sharia by overthrowing Pakistan’s government/military, and also removing United States’ forces from Afghanistan.
Recently, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have merged into one, now just Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), and this is where the Pakistani Taliban operates, but it also has been said the some operation takes place in Afghanistan and United States. However, these main operations take place in Northwestern Pakistan and around the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is called the Durand Line. In the KPK area, the main ethnic group is Pashtun, with Sunni being the dominant religion and Pashto the official language.
Since there is no unification within this group, it is also safe to say that they do not hold one simple hierarchy. Instead, they have different agencies within the areas of KPK, which is: Khyber, Kurram, Mansehra, Mehsud, Mohmand, North/South Waziristan, Orakzai, Swat, etc. However, even though there is not a simple hierarchy, there are still leadership positions throughout these agencies. This group has a shura, who typically oversees the functions of the different agencies and makes the vital decisions. Next, there is a leader of the central Pakistani Taliban whom has several “deputies” working with them. Within the central point of this group, there also is a central spokesperson. After the central spokesperson, the leadership position within the central point of the group stops and you begin to see different leaders and spokespersons for each agency within KPK (Abbas, 2008). Although there are different leaders throughout these agencies, they all report to the shura, who is over the entire group and not just certain agencies.
The complicated hierarchy within the Pakistani Taliban can make this group very disorganized, which can make them become very weak. Each agency has different responsibilities, and this can cause a disruption in the focus of the central goals of the group. For example, the South Waziristan sector is mainly responsible for attacks against Afghanistan’s International Security Assistance Force. If the different groups are not successfully handling their responsibilities, then it would be difficult to maintain and reach the goals they have. At times, it is helpful for everyone to work on different smaller goals to reach one bigger goal. However, when there is no unison, this can cause a group just working towards no end. This could be the case of the Pakistani Taliban since they never fully merged into one actual, unified group. It is not unhealthy to have more than one leadership role, but it may be overbearing for this group to have different leaders and spokespersons for every single sector within KPK. There are at least eight different agencies within this group, and to have a different leader and spokesperson for each one, can create a very sticky situation.
Due to their poor organization and different sectors, it is difficult to pinpoint an actual number of members this are active in the Pakistani Taliban. However, about 4 years ago, it was noted by the UN Security Council that “Some estimates suggest that the Pakistani Taliban has between thirty thousand to thirty-five thousand members.” As stated earlier, it can be an issue for the many different sectors that exist within this one group. Being the devil’s advocate, they may believe that since there are a lot of them, they may possibly be able to actually overthrow the military and government. However, one of the Pakistani Taliban’s former spokespersons once gave an interview and was explaining that these different sectors would often have fights regarding leadership (Yousaf, 2017).
As stated earlier, although there are different leaders for each agency, there is still one central leader over the entire group. This individual goes by the name of Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, and he was appointed as leader last year, 2018, after the death of the former leader. Mehsud is a 41-year-old man from the Mehsud tribe in the South Waziristan sector of KPK. He differs from former leaders and members because he is well-educated, which is typically uncommon for these individuals. According to Danish Institute for International Studies, after studies on these individuals, it was learned that “little or no formal education [and] religious education was received from a reputable madrassa “ (Siddique, 2010). This is what differentiates him from the others because he received initial education from one of Pakistan’s most successful madrassas, known as Siddiqia. He also received a higher education, as well as a degree from one of Pakistan’s best universities, Jamia Ahsan-ul-Uloom, Karachi. It is also said that he wrote two books, with one being 700 pages regarding Mehsud militants and their history.
Mehsud first began his “militant career” in the late 90’s when he would join forces with the Afghan Taliban while they were fighting a military front known as the Northern Alliance. He also fought alongside them after the attacks of September 11, 2001. With the help of his education, he earned the role of a judge for the Afghan Taliban. He later began to work with the Pakistani Taliban, where he would become leader of the Mehsud sector of the group. In 2018, after the former leader, Mullah Fazlullah, died from a targeted drone strike, Mehsud became the new leader of the central point of the Pakistani Taliban (Yousaf, 2017).
When it comes to majority of the members of this group, they tend to be mid-aged, around thirty-five. Many of these individuals joined forces due to their disagreements with Pakistan’s military/government. Many of these individuals remain upset that them and their people were targeted after fleeing from the war in 2001. Ever since then, these individuals have been working towards overthrowing their government and military. Aside from the older individuals in this group, there also are some whom are way younger because these are said to be the main ones who are being recruited. Children in madrassas tend to be preyed on by the older members who are willing to recruit and teach them. This could be an explanation for Mehsud’s fascination with the Taliban and militant forces. According to the Danish Institute for
International Studies, the Pakistani Taliban have lured and even taken some young children against their own will. One boy who had been recruited when he was thirteen said, “ They take us to a madrassa and teach us things from the Quran…they teach us how to use Kalashnikov and machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, bombs…they tell us to use them only against the infidels. Then they teach us how to do a suicide attack,” (Siddique, 2010). These recruiters are training these young boys and instilling their principles into them while they are still very young. As stated earlier, the Pakistani Taliban plans to implement Sharia law, which is why they are teaching them the Quran. They also are teaching these young boys that Pakistan’s military/government is the enemy, which makes it their religious duty to attack them.
Aside from the actual members whom are part of this group, they also have a list of ways to financially support their movement. One way this group earns income to support themselves is through holding important societal individuals against their will in order to receive money for their return. An example of this would be kidnapping a politician and demanded money in order to return them. This type of tactic would only work with “higher-status” individuals, because if you kidnap someone that comes from a family who does not have a lot of money or someone who barely has family, then they most likely would not have a lot of money to offer or they may not even be looked for. Another way these individuals earn money is through taxing people within the society. An example of this is trucks that are coming in and out of the area to deliver shipments. With this method, they would charge these drivers in exchange for “safe” road access. It has also been speculated that these individuals take part in drug trading, in which they send illegal drugs to foreign countries. Lastly, another way of earning money is through fining civilians whenever he/she is caught violating Sharia law. This could be compared to law enforcement, so, for example, if an individual is caught listening to music, then that person may be fined and the money will be kept by the Pakistani Taliban.
Aside from gaining money through these tactics, this group also has supporter who are willing to donate to the cause. These donations are typically given at Islamic institutes, with the proceeds going directly to the group. It has also been found that this groups holds fundraisers through an illegal radio channel that they are responsible for. Besides donations and fundraisers, it has been found that the Pakistani Taliban has been funded by Al-Qaeda. This was proven when a contribution of fifteen million dollars was found to be given to the group by a charity ran by Al-Qaeda. Former spokesperson for the group, Ehsanullah Ehsan, also claimed that outside sources, such as Indian and Afghanistan intelligence agencies has helped fund the group, but these claims have not been yet to be proved true or not (Siddique, 2010).
When deploying attacks, one of this group’s most common method is suicide bombings. The individuals most physically responsible for carrying out these suicide bombings are the young boys that have been recruited from these madrassas. After being recruited, these boys whom are chosen to be a suicide bomber has to to go through extra training in order to prepare for the attack. According to the Danish Institute for International Studies, in a document about the Pakistani Taliban, children are heard reciting ‘If you try to find me after I have died, you will never find my whole body, you will find me in little pieces,” (Siddique, 2010).
When carrying out these attacks, most of their targets have included government agencies, militants and even innocent civilians. The most common methods of these suicide attacks tend to be carried out through vehicles or the usual of having explosives attached to the individual. If a vehicle is used, then a suicide bomber would be driving a vehicle with explosives on it, in which they will drive to the targeted destination. Once they reach the destination, the suicide bomber would either ram the vehicle into the building or park outside of it and detonate the explosives, (Siddique, 2010). On the other hand, if they are committing a suicide attack with explosives strapped to them, then they typically would go to a crowded location, such as a school, then detonate the explosive.
One of the Pakistani Taliban’s most infamous attack was carried out on May 13, 2011. It has been said that this attack was planned as revenge for the killing of Osama Bin Laden, whom was the former leader of Al-Qaeda that was killed due to a targeted kill ordered by President Obama. This attack took place at a police force in Shabqadar, which was being used as a training center. On the day of the attack, these cadets whom have just been trained for the duration of six weeks, were loading into buses to go home to their families. As they were awaiting departure, two suicide bombers drove towards these buses full of cadets and detonated their explosives. It has noted that they killed ninety-eight individuals, and injured more than one-hundred, in which this included civilians (Cassman, 2017).
Another method that the Pakistani’s Taliban uses to carry out attacks is shootings. A couple of years after the attack in Shabqadar, this group also committed an attack at an army-ran school in Peshawar, Pakistan. The reasoning behind this attack was vengeance for a prior attack that their government had taken against them a couple of months before. That day, after school had begun, a group of Pakistani Taliban members had entered the establishment and began taking fire against everyone, including students and staff administrators. However, according to one of their spokespersons at the time, “They had instructions not to harm the children…we selected the army’s school for attack because the government is targeting our families.” Although this does not seem to be their preferred method of attacks, it happened to be one of their hugest (Cassman, 2017). It was noted that they killed almost one hundred and fifty individuals in total.
Lastly, their most significant attack is one that had zero casualties. In 2012, a member of the Pakistani Taliban boarded a school bus and shot a young girl by the name of Malala Yousafzai in the head. Malala was targeted due to her speaking out against rules that this group had implemented into her society. The rule that mostly affected her and caused her to speak out was one which restricted her, and her fellow female counterparts, from going to school. This led her to write a blog speaking out against it, which eventually led her to being documented and interviewed. After all of the attention she was gaining about her shedding light on this issue, the Pakistani Taliban took it into their hands to try to eliminate her. Thankfully, though, Malala Yousafzai survived the shot and is not a Pakistani activist (Biography, 2018).
Knowing that the Pakistani Taliban appointed a new leader shortly after the targeted killing of their last leader, it is safe to say that this group is still active. The group has committed at least five acts in the year of 2019 alone. Their last known attack was a month ago, in which they were responsible for killing four Pakistani soldiers after a bomb attack in North Waziristan. Their current leader, Mehsud, spent a portion of his life fighting alongside Afghanistan’s Taliban, so it is to be believed that he has close ties with them. One could imagine that if he has a relationship with this group, then the two groups may begin to eventually work together. It would be a very dangerous situation if forces from both of these groups come together to commit attacks. However, some individuals believe that the Pakistani Taliban’s movement may fall apart one day and take their own paths due to the different sectors and responsibilities they each hold (Farmer and Mehsud, 2018). On the other hand, if the Pakistani Taliban continues working together, then their terror acts may continue for quite some time because of the extensive goals they have. In reality, overthrowing an entire military and government is not something that happens overnight, so this will take some time for them to achieve, if they ever do. If they were to ever accomplish this, then this does not mean that they would not have civil issues within their country, meaning that their fight may not ever end. However, the point is that if these individuals do not reach these extensive goals that they wish for, then they will continue carrying out attacks and creating chaos. The other alternative to this would be if forces joined to eliminate the group, but this may also be hard to complete because of the many different sectors of the group. There are so many different groups within this one group that it would be difficult to eliminate all of them. It can be tried to hit the center of the group, but we saw this happen in 2018 when former leader, Mullah Fazlullah, was killed by a drone strike. Officials probably hoped that the group would collapse after killing the central leader. However, the group remained active and simply appointed a leader from one of the group’s sectors. I believe that this is a clear indication that terrorism will remain an issue in today’s world.
References
- Abbas, H. (2008). CTC Sentinel. January 2008, Volume 1 Issue 2. A Profile of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. A Profile of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. doi:10.21236/ada493402
- Cassman, D. (2017, August 6). Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. Retrieved November 10, 2018, from http://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/105
- Farmer, B., & Mehsud, S. (2018, June 24). Pakistan Taliban’s new leader faces challenge to keep militants together.
- Hamee, K. (n.d.). Literature on KPK. Retrieved November 10, 2018, from https://cmdo.org.pk/literature-on-kp/
- Malala Yousafzai. (2018, October 09). Retrieved November 22, 2018, from https://www.biography.com/people/malala-yousafzai-21362253
- Sheikh, M. (2016). Guardians of God: Inside the religious mind of the Pakistani Taliban. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press.
- Siddique, Q. (2010). Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. An Attempt to Deconstruct the Umbrella Organization and the Reasons for its Growth in Pakistan’s North-West.
- United Nations. (2014, July 3). Pakistan: Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), including structure, objectives, areas of operations, militant activities and targets; state response (2011-June 2014). Retrieved October 22, 2018, from https://www.refworld.org/docid/54ca27c24.html
- Yousaf, K. (2017, April 26). Former spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan rips apart TTP in confession video. Https://tribune.com.pk/story/1393995/ispr-releases-former-ttp-spokesperson-ehsanullah-ehsans-confessional-video/
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