Pakistan-Afghanistan relations have hit rock bottom since the caretaker government took over in Islamabad in August this year, with the former announcing the expulsion of all illegal foreigners in the country in October, but focusing solely on Afghan nationals, and an increase in attacks by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in various parts of the country, particularly the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Islamabad has been putting pressure on the Kabul government to take action against Pakistani militants based in Afghanistan and has even threatened to attack inside the country in pursuit of the TTP’s presence there. Islamabad has even indicated using drones to attack TTP targets. However, the interim Taliban administration has repeatedly denied allowing Pakistani militants to use Afghanistan, claiming that Islamabad’s issues with the TTP are internal and have nothing to do with Kabul.
Nevertheless, the daily attacks on security forces and law enforcement agencies in various regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pushed the interim government in Islamabad to announce the visit of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of Pakistan’s main religiopolitical party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, to act as a mediator between the two countries.
“And let the people of Pakistan know that we never want unrest in Pakistan, our relations to deteriorate, or any action taken against Pakistan.” We certainly do not want this, and Maulana Fazlur Rehman sahib can play this role very well,” said Afghan interim government chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement posted on the social media platform X on Monday.
Amid Pakistan’s pressure on the Afghan Taliban administration, two more militant organizations surfaced, with Tehreek-e-Jihad-e-Pakistan claiming responsibility for the Nov. 4 major attack on the Pakistan Air Force base in Mianwali, while Ansarul Islam confessing for earlier this month’s attacks on law enforcement in Tank and Dera Islam Khan, both of which are adjacent to the volatile tribal district of South Waziristan.
New militant groups
A few days after the attack on the Pakistan Air Force base, the Tehreek-e-Jihad-e-Pakistan issued a statement, using recycled words to explain the current purpose of Jihad against the US and its supporters, as well as the reasons for this new group in the name of Islam.
The statement issued by the group’s spokesman Mulla Muhammad Qasim also claimed massive losses to the air force and base named seven militants who took part in the suicide mission.
However, the Pakistan Army’s media wing said in a statement that the attack at Training Airbase was foiled, with all nine terrorists killed. During the attack, no damage was done to any of the operational assets, and only minor damage was done to three already phased-out non-operational aircraft.
On Dec. 15, another militant group, Ansarul Islam, claimed responsibility for police attacks in the Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
A day after the attack, a small group of eight people was shown in a video shared with selected media members, all of whom had their faces covered with clothes, and one of whom introduced himself as the leader of this new group.
The purpose of this new group, which was almost identical to the Tehreek-e-Jihad-e-Pakistan, was explained, and he said the current number of Ansarul Islam members is small, but it will grow as he invited people to join it. The person who spoke in Urdu in the video did not give his name. However, according to sources in Waziristan, his name is Yasir Wazir. Though the Wazir tribe has been fighting the government for a long time, the TTP is known for having the majority of its members from the Mehsud tribe of South Waziristan.
However, sources assert that two militant groups are using aliases rather than their real names for various reasons. They added that the majority of the members of these groups are from the TTP, with some former militants based in Pakistan also joining them. But the question is, if they are from the TTP, why are they forming new groups?
Oath of allegiance
To understand how militant groups operate under the name of Islamic Jihad, it is necessary to first understand what Islam says about the leader, who is known as Ameer or Rehbar in Jihadi or Islamic language.
Most Jihadi groups use the term Ameer, and to follow him is mandatory whether a member likes it or not. The members take an oath of allegiance to obey the Ameer regardless of one’s willingness or reservations. So, members of all militant groups in Afghanistan, including the TTP, have pledged allegiance to Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Afghan Taliban’s supreme leader or Ameer. If he orders the TTP to cease operations within Pakistan, the militant group will comply immediately.
According to sources, the Afghan Taliban supreme leader has directed all militant groups not to engage in any hostile or combative activity within Afghanistan. However, the TTP continues to engage in subversive activities within Pakistan.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s visit
Now, Pakistan is putting pressure on Afghanistan to act against the TTP. Already, Islamabad has threatened to attack its targets inside Afghanistan, a clear reference to the TTP militants, who live in different provinces of Afghanistan but on the border with Pakistan since June 2014 during the Pakistan Army operation Zerb-e-Azb against militants in North Waziristan.
So, the emergence of these two groups in recent months clearly indicates that both the Tehreek-e-Jihad-e-Pakistan and Ansarul Islam militants are independent groups based in Pakistan, and they have not taken any oath of allegiance to the Afghan Taliban supreme leader.
So, if Maulana Fazlur Rehman visits Kabul within the next 10 days, as party spokesman Mohammad Aslam Ghauri told the media, Afghanistan may commit not to allow the TTP to carry out subversive activities inside Pakistan. However, when it comes to these two groups, which are apparently made up of TTP members, the Afghan government will categorically state that reining in militant groups in Pakistan is not within their domain. And this could be a thorny issue that would impact the fate of such negotiations.
As time goes on, the names of the two groups will be associated with any terrorist activity within Pakistan. Since the gap between the people and those ruling the country has widened to a dangerous level in Pakistan, the people believe that the current interim setup, which has only one responsibility of conducting fair and free elections in the country within 90 days as per the Constitution, is not representing them.
They believe that Islamabad hardly cares about their problems with rising utility bills, the withdrawal of health insurance cards introduced by the previous government of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) of incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and fewer job opportunities, and that it may create more security issues, rather than solving any.