BANNED groups like the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) accounted for over 82% of terrorism-related deaths and conducted 78% of terrorist attacks recorded in 2023. Pakistan Security Report for 2023 released by the Pak Institute of Policy Studies (PIPS) also apprehends continuation of the threat as the TTP and its affiliates will continue to resort to an intensified terrorism onslaught with a view to ‘force’ Pakistan to reinstate the process of dialogue.
The report emerged a day after the Senate was informed by the Interior Ministry that continuous influx of TTP members in significant numbers, with recruitment, training and placing of suicide bombers, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s merged districts is “a cause of concern”. Unfortunately, a total of 306 terrorist attacks took place in Pakistan in the year — including 23 suicide bombings — which killed 693 people and injured 1,124 others, showing a 17% increase in acts of terrorism in the country from the previous year. It can be said with certainty that the source of terrorism in Pakistan is the presence of TTP and other anti-Pakistan elements on the soil of Afghanistan but regrettably Kabul has so far not shown any sensitivity to the issue repeatedly raised by Islamabad. Pakistan once again conveyed its concern to the other side when a high-level Afghan delegation led by Haji Mullah Shirin, the Governor of Kandahar and Deputy Head of military intelligence and strategy in the Taliban Administration met senior officials in Islamabad. Afghanistan must shun evasive tactics and address Pakistan’s concern on a priority basis as the country is in the midst of electoral process and a surge in terrorist activities would negatively impact the process besides further compounding the already strained relations between the two countries.
