Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the director-general of ISPR, stated in a press conference on Tuesday that ties between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and militant Baloch organisations, as well as foreign intelligence services, have been established. According to the ISPR DG, there have been 436 terrorist occurrences this year alone, with 293 people killed and 523 injured. This year, 137 security officials have been killed, and another 117 have been injured. During this time, security personnel carried out 8,279 intelligence-based operations (IBOs), killing 1,535 terrorists.
Every day, around 70 IBOs are conducted. These figures give a bleak picture of how terrorism has resurfaced in Pakistan after several years of relative calm. The ISPR DG reminded the press conference about how militants and terrorists attack mosques, police, religious scholars, media people, and citizens while correctly pointing out that terrorist organisations and their facilitators lack any ideology, religion, or faith.
There is growing worry among Pakistan’s security specialists that following the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August 2021, there will be an increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan. The army chief correctly stated in a briefing to legislators before Eid that previous agreements with the TTP let terrorists regroup in the country. It is also good to see that military and civilian leaders recognise the causes of the unexpected increase in terrorist occurrences and are not afraid to say so.
In an interview the Defence Minister Khawaja Asif issued a dire warning: “At some point we’ll have to will to some measures, which will definitely – wherever [terrorists] are, their sanctuaries on Afghan soil – we’ll have to hit them.” Asif said that if the Afghan government did not stop the TTP from using Afghan soil to carry out terrorist activities in Pakistan. The ISPR DG also disclosed that the Peshawar mosque suicide attack in January was ordered by the TTP and carried out by the proscribed militant group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. The perpetrator was an Afghan national. These are significant allegations.
Afghan temporary Foreign Minister Ameer Khan Muttaqi is set to visit Pakistan in the coming weeks, according to media sources. According to some, this development follows Khawaja Asif’s previous visit. It is critical that the administration makes it clear to the Afghan Taliban during this visit that there would be no tolerance for cross-border terrorism. However, it should be noted that threatening to invade another country’s territory is a serious remark.
Pakistan fought a long, hard, and bloody struggle against terrorists, and only after a determined effort by our security forces was terrorism finally eliminated. At a time when Pakistan is confronting an unprecedented crisis, it cannot enable terrorists to sneak back into the country. Pakistani security personnel have already informed the Supreme Court of their involvement in combating terrorism and the country’s security condition.
The Supreme Court, on the other hand, is pressing for polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before the national elections in October. In answer to a question yesterday, an ISPR official stated that the Ministry of Defence had already briefed the Supreme Court on the deployment of troops for elections, which was based on “ground realities.”
According to security experts, it would be impossible to engage security personnel in elections first in two provinces and then across the country when general elections are held. The country’s security situation appears uncertain, and the possibilities of elections under the current circumstances appear gloomy at best.
