ON the night of November 19/20, twelve soldiers embraced martyrdom as a result of a suicide attack by TTP terrorists (Fitna Al Khwarij) in the Mali Khel area of Bannu District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). According to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), “Khwarij attempted to attack a joint check post in the general area of Mali Khel in Bannu District. The attempt to enter the post was effectively thwarted by our troops, forcing the Khwarij to ram an explosive-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall of the post.” The collapse of the perimeter wall led to the martyrdom of the aforementioned twelve soldiers. In the ensuing exchange of fire, six terrorists of Fitna Al Khwarij were also killed. As a settled area, Bannu District in KP has been under constant threat from Al Khwarij terrorism in recent months. Additionally, there has been a rapid rise in terrorism across areas adjoining the Pak-Afghan border and in Balochistan Province.
Pakistan has been highly affected by terrorism ever since 9/11. Analyzing the data of terrorism, from year 2000 to 2024, there has been variations in the wave of terrorism. Starting from 2000, the initial terrorist attacks and human losses were less compared to later phases. Nevertheless, there has been a gradual increase in the incidents of terrorism and resultant human losses, both of civilians and personnel of security forces. The data analysis indicates fewer terrorist attacks from 2000 to 2006. Indeed, until 2006, individual terrorist groups were operating in various parts of Pakistan, especially in the former FATA area. The incident of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) united all mushroom terrorist outfits under the umbrella of a new terrorist organization with the name of Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (Fitna Al Khawarij) in 2007. The formal announcement was made in December 2007 with Baitullah Mehsud as its Ameer (supreme leader). The Lal Masjid incident under the codename; ‘Operation Sunrise’ in July 2007 is considered a strategic blunder, which united most of the religious-based terrorist organizations under the banner of TTP (Fitna Al Khawarij). There were many other options for ending the siege of the Red Mosque and Jamia Hafza, which could have avoided the use of force and the great tragedy of human losses, later exploited by international media and terrorist groups. Indeed, immediately after the incident of Red Mosque, the terrorist organization stepped up its terrorist activities all over the country. The pattern and frequency of terrorism reflects increase in terrorist attacks after 2007. In 2006, there took place 317 incidents of terrorism, killing a total of 1466 people, whereas in 2007, there were 531 incidents of terrorism, which killed 3594. From 2008 to 2014, terrorism remained at its peak in Pakistan. This was despite undertaking active military operations in various parts of Pakistan. In 2008, there took place 1,149 terrorist attacks killing 6683 individuals. In the subsequent years, there has been a rise in the pattern of terrorist attacks: 1,665, 1,246, 1,573, 2,347, 2,034 and 1,569 from 2009 to 2014. The number of casualties (human losses) also increased in these years.
In the middle of 2014, the Pakistani military conducted a major military offensive against all terrorist organizations, mainly in the North Waziristan area. This military operation with the codename Zarb-e-Azb was a significant setback for all terrorist organizations. Indeed, it was a joint military operation by the Pak Army and Pakistan Air Force against various militant groups: Fitna Al Khawarij, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, East Turkestan Islamic Movement, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Al-Qaeda, and Lashkar-e-Islam. Though Operation Zarb-e-Azb caused a massive internal displacement of the local people from North Waziristan, the outcome of the operation was a complete success and the main militant group Fitna Al Khawarij could not reorganize itself again in Pakistan. After the conduct of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, there came a gradual decline in the number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. This can be deduced from the data analysis of the casualties. In 2014, there were a total of 1569 terrorist attacks whereas, in 2015, there came a sharp decline in the frequency of terrorist attacks; 950 terrorist attacks were recorded in 2015. In 2016 this number was further reduced to 526 and 294 in 2017. In 2018 there took place 164 terrorist attacks while 136 terrorist attacks took place in 2019 and 193 in 2020. Many terrorists of Fitna Al Khawarij fled to Afghanistan after Operations Zarb-e-Azb, where they were well received by Afghan Government officials of that time besides NDS and RAW agents.
There came resurgence in terrorism after Afghan Taliban established their Government in Afghanistan in August 2021. Analyzing the pattern of terrorism from 2021 to 2024, there is a clear evidence of a gradual increase in terrorism in Pakistan from August 2021 to 2024. In 2021, there took place 268 terrorist attacks compared to 193 in 2020. In the year 2022, several terrorist attacks were witnessed. A total of 365 terrorist attacks were recorded in 2022, which killed 971 individuals, including 379 men and officers of the security forces. The terrorist attacks further increased to 527 in 2023, causing the death of 1502 individuals, including 532 personnel of security forces. Till October 2024, over 600 terrorist attacks have been recorded. The year 2024 is considered as the worst year from the security perspective since it killed over 1200 people.
The rise of terrorism in Pakistan must be taken very seriously by everyone. Whereas, the military is facing the brunt of this terrorism with almost daily casualties, the Government, civil society, religious organizations and intellectuals have a role to play for bringing an end to this menace. The nation as a whole should stand behind the fighting outfits of Military to defeat terrorism in its all sphere.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
