ON 12 November 2024, Inspector General of Police (IG), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) confirmed that a policeman was involved as the facilitator with terrorist outfits in connection with the suicide attack of January 2023 at Police Lines Peshawar. As a result of this deadly terrorist attack, approximately 90 policemen were killed. The arrested policeman, Mr Mohammad Wali has confessed his crime of acting as the key facilitator in the Peshawar Police Lines bombing. Mr Wali had confessed that he “held meetings with members of the banned militant group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and its spokesperson, Mohammad Khorasani.”
It is deeply troubling that covert agents of terrorist organizations are embedded within law enforcement agencies. Mr. Wali also acknowledged that in 2021, he established contact via Facebook with Junaid, a recruitment agent for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. Wali reportedly travelled to Afghanistan, where he met with the group’s top leadership, received funds for his membership and later provided them with maps of the police lines. From conducting reconnaissance to coordinating the suicide attack, Wali managed all administrative arrangements. He was also involved in similar attacks elsewhere in KP and other parts of Pakistan, receiving substantial payments in return. These revelations highlight serious vulnerabilities within our law enforcement agencies and flaws in our intelligence system.
Indeed, Pakistan has been facing a renewed wave of terrorism from across its western borders since the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in mid-August 2021. This resurgence is especially troubling, as Pakistan had previously combated this menace through a series of military operations conducted between 2007 and 2017. Besides primary military operations against terrorism and militancy, the Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps have conducted dozens of minor military operations all over the former FATA and even in the settled areas of the KP Province. Operation Zarb-e-Azb was the last major military operation launched by the Pakistan Army with the help of the Pakistan Air Force in 2014. This operation was conducted in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA), which was considered the “No Go Area” in the former FATA. It was the main headquarters of the terrorist outfit TTP. TTP, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and many other terrorist outfits operating against Pakistan all the western borders have been renamed as Fitna Al Khawarij.
Through this significant counter-terrorism operation, the Pakistani military was able to destroy all the terrorist networks of the Fitna Al Khawarij, which included IED manufacturing factories, weapon and ammunition dumps, operational headquarters, underground tunnels and communication networks. As a result of this operation, and a series of earlier conducted military operations in various parts of the former FATA, a considerable number of the Fitna Al Khawarij terrorists fled into Afghanistan, where their abettors welcomed them; the Afghan spying network, The National Directorate of Security (NDS) and elements of Indian spying network Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). It is worth mentioning that NDS and RAW were operating in sync against Pakistan through their established terrorist launching pads in Afghanistan all along the western borders of Pakistan until 2021. They were providing all sorts of support to Fitna Al Khawarij and many other terrorist outfits against Pakistan while making use of Afghan soil. Their support included the provision of hideouts, training, arming, financing and launching of the terrorists into Pakistan from Afghan soil.
Unfortunately, there has been a gradual increase in the militancy and terrorism in Pakistan following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Afghan Taliban in mid-August 2021. The Fitna Al Khawarij terrorists, who remained less active in Afghanistan from 2017 to 2021, suddenly became active upon the takeover of Kabul by the Afghan Taliban. It was an unexpected move since Pakistan was instrumental in bringing the Afghan Taliban into power through a peace agreement between the US Government and the Afghan Taliban. In 2023, there was a dramatic increase in terror attacks of Fitna Al Khawarij in the KP and Balochistan provinces. Instead, international analysts had analysed at that time that taking over Afghanistan by the Taliban was a great success for Pakistan. Whereas this takeover was considered a success for Pakistan, simultaneously, it was considered an excellent setback for India and the Western world since traditionally, the Afghan Taliban had an unwelcoming attitude toward both.
Unfortunately, this didn’t happen, and relationships between Pakistan and the Taliban Government of Afghanistan turned unpleasant after initial cordiality. This unfriendliness in the bilateral relationship was neither good for Pakistan nor the Taliban Government of Afghanistan. Realising the unwelcoming nature of the relationship between Islamabad and Kabul, terrorists of Fitna Al Khawarij started their nefarious terrorist activities against Pakistan by attacking military posts along the Pak-Afghan borders. As the Fitna Al Khawarij attacks on Pakistani posts continued, it was noted that the Afghan Taliban Militia (soldiers of the Afghan Taliban Government) started supporting the Fitna Al Khawarij elements.
Fitna Al Khawarij is expanding its terrorism in Pakistan. Involvement of Mr Wali as the key facilitator of Fitna Al Khawarij warrants that Pakistani law enforcement agencies (LEAs) must be cognizant of such elements who can become agents/facilitators of terrorist outfits. Besides, the intelligence system needs to be revitalized on the modern lines to timely inform about the acts of terrorism and first-hand knowledge about people like Mr Wali in their ranks and files. Security checks and clearance processes within law enforcement agencies must be handled with the utmost professionalism. Over the past two decades, Pakistan has made unprecedented sacrifices in its fight against terrorism. Therefore, the presence of insiders like Mr. Wali should not come as a surprise.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
