AL-Qaeda’s attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001, were the deadliest terrorist incidents in history. Around 3,000 people, mostly Americans and Europeans, including some Muslims, were killed in these attacks. The war against terrorism started, and according to some estimates, about 3 million people have been killed in the world since 2001. The foremost challenge to the violent extremist ideology of Al-Qaeda was the heavy criticism of Islamic scholarship that Quran-o-Sunnat does not allow killings of non-combatants and civilians in wars.
The leadership of Al-Qaeda waged a hard propaganda struggle to justify civilian killings in terrorist attacks perpetrated by its militants. The documents recovered from Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad revealed that he was occupied by efforts to reign in Al-Qaeda branches in Iraq and Syria to minimize civilian killings and sectarian violence in the terrorist attacks. Against this backdrop, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is conducting deceptive propaganda to avoid condemning Ulema over civilian killings in the attacks. It had already martyred 84 thousand Muslims, civilians, children, women and the elderly in the terrorist attacks and suicide bombings in Pakistan.
Under the Islamic legal doctrine, terrorism has no place as a tactic of war because of its murderous nature. Islam’s humanitarian aspects remain valid even in the legitimate Jihad, the Quran, chapter 2, verse 190: “Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight you, and do not transgress. Verily, Allah does not like the transgressors.” In this regard, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and Hazrat Abu Bakr Sadique (RA) have instructed a very strict code of conduct for a Muslim army. These principles emphasize that unarmed combatants and non-combatants should not be attacked. Moreover, the killing of innocent children, women, the elderly, farmers and labourers should be avoided in the war. Furthermore, animals, crops, trees and private property should not be destroyed in war. Unfortunately, terrorist attacks violate all these norms set by the Quran, and militant outfits have largely harmed the interests of the Muslim masses. Therefore, terrorism and militant organisations have been condemned to rejection by the scholars of Islam in Pakistan.
As Ulema have become very vocal against terrorism in Pakistan, the chief of the TTP, Noor Wali Mehsud, is propagating that he does not want civilian killings in the attack. Moreover, TTP is using Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) for deception in this regard. It is perpetrating heinous terrorist attacks on civilian targets through ISKP to avoid public backlash and criticism of Ulema for killing innocent Muslims. ISKP launches suicide bombers on Ulema, mosques, religious gatherings and groups, whereas TTP only accepts responsibility for terrorist attacks on security forces. Mostly, ISKP consists of former commanders and militants of the TTP, while a few disgruntled elements of the Afghan Taliban have also joined it. Therefore, human source, ideology, terrorist tactics and targets overlap so much that both banned outfits are identical to each other.
Due to its deviated ideology and murderous rampage, TTP has been prone to internal power games and infighting due to tribal rivalries among its leaders. The factionalism further aggravated when rifts in Salafi and Jihadis divided Al-Qaeda, and DAESH was created to rival it. Slain Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and DAESH emerged from the shambles of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria, but their violence, atrocities and criminality have even humbled Al-Qaeda and its affiliated terrorist outfits. Dr Ayman Al-Zawahiri had disavowed his ties with Baghdadi because he had provoked internal fighting in Al-Qaeda, in which thousands of Salafis and Jihadis were killed in Iraq and Syria. In this situation, the TTP/ISKP division is a financial strategy to generate additional funds. The wealthy Arab militants were a major attraction for the leadership of the TTP; they affiliated with Al-Qaeda to attain funds and Jihadi grandiosity. For the same motives, some of its commanders and many militants joined ranks with DAESH and created ISKP to gain funds from the illegal trade of oil in Iraq.
TTP and ISKP threaten peace in Pakistan alike, and they are conducting mass deception in the name of Islamic ideology, jihad, the Caliphate, the Quran and Shariah. They radicalize youths and force teenagers to commit “Haram” acts like suicide attacks; on the other hand, a single terrorist leader like Noor Wali Mehsud could not gather the courage to blow up his close family members with a suicide vest. Ironically, these militants also kill their companions over petty issues, and their propaganda campaign is also marked by contradictions. Noor Wali identifies himself with the top leadership of the Afghan Taliban for his glorification; on the other hand, ISKP abhors the Afghan Taliban and condemns them in propaganda campaigns. Quite strangely, it has a soft approach towards TTP, strengthening the perception that they are collaborating on some level. Moreover, TTP has a Pashtun tribal construct; therefore, militants from other ethnicities, Central Asian states, and the Arab world are kept in the ISKP for the upper hand of the Mehsud tribe in turf wars. In this regard, the most worrisome aspect for Pakistan is the presence of Indians in ISKP.
TTP and ISKP were found retracting the claims they made for some suicide attacks on mosques and religious gatherings recently, exposing the nexus among militants. Moreover, another previously unknown group, Tehreek-e-Jihad-Pakistan, is making attack claims, while sources in the security forces wonder how a new group could demonstrate access to militant resources and a reach to secure installations in Pakistan. Therefore, this militant group is also the TTP’s ploy to manage backlash over civilian casualties in Pakistan and Afghanistan. TTP’s misleading claims to evade responsibility for civilian deaths reflect guilt among militants for the innocent lives lost in their suicide attacks. The Quran emphasizes the sanctity of human life profoundly in chapter 5, verse 32, highlighting the gravity of taking an innocent life and the importance of preserving it.
—The writer is a freelance contributor on the issues of violent extremism and militancy.
views expressed are writer’s own.
