The Pakistan Army claims the suicide bomber who attacked a military convoy on Sunday was an Afghan citizen and affiliated with the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, an offshoot of the Tahrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The attack that targeted security officers’ vehicle in Bannu City, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was carried out by a motorcycle-borne suicide bomber, who killed two civilians and wounded seven civilians in addition to three soldiers, according to the Pakistani army.
According to local security officials in Pakistan, a clearance operation is underway to eliminate any other terrorists in the area.
Tahrik Taliban Pakistan, a militant organization fighting against the government in Islamabad, has pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban’s leadership. The Pakistani government has repeatedly blamed the Taliban regime in Afghanistan for harbouring the leadership and fighters of the TTP, a claim refuted by authorities in Kabul.
Security incidents including suicide bombings, explosions, and direct attacks on military checkposts and convoys have increased since the recapture of power in Afghanistan by the Taliban, a group with close ties to the Pakistani security and intelligence establishment. Many have seen the deterioration of the relationship between the two sides as a sign of unravelling in Pakistan’s strategic calculus to cultivate the Afghan Taliban as a proxy.
This is not the first time Pakistan claims that Afghan citizens have been behind terror attacks on its soil. A few months ago, Anwar ul-Haq Kakar, Pakistan’s interim Prime Minister, said that in the last two years, 15 Afghan citizens were among those who carried out suicide attacks in Pakistan, and 64 Afghans were killed during counter-terrorism operations by the country’s security forces.
In efforts to improve security and curb terrorism, the Pakistani government has begun since the beginning of November deporting Afghan refugees, a move that has faced wide criticism from human rights groups, the UN, and Taliban authorities in Kabul. According to the UN estimates, gnarly 400,000 people have been forcibly returned to Afghanistan in the last two months.
In addition to the expulsion of undocumented refugees, Pakistan has also deployed a rigid border policy that requires visas by Pashtuns on two sides of the Durand Line to travel. A sit-in in the border of the city of Chaman since October has challenged the new immigration policy as unjust that divides families with historical and tribal ties on both sides of the border.
In addition to the TTP, a new terrorist group has emerged in the Pakistani security scene, the Tahreek Jihad Pakistan. The group has managed to carry out senior high-level attacks on military targets across Pakistan. In early November, the group raided an airbase in Mianwali city in Central Pakistan that destroyed at least three aircraft. The raid came a day after several attacks killed nearly 22 soldiers across Pakistan.
The Tahrik Taliban Pakistan has found renewed strength in recent years in Pakistan, particularly since its ideological forebearer, the Afghan Taliban, returned to power in Kabul. The uptick in violence has claimed the lives of over 700 people across Pakistan. According to the Pakistani army, at least 240 soldiers have been killed this year.
In efforts to bring the security situation in its southwestern tribal belt under control, the Pakistani army has even carried out several military operations inside Afghanistan. In July, after two attacks in Balochistan province killed at least 12 soldiers, the country’s chief of army, General Asim Munir, warned of an ‘effective response’ if the Taliban regime in Afghanistan failed to act against those posing threats to Pakistan from Afghan soil.
The Taliban authorities have constantly brushed away allegations of their ties to the TTP. The group’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, once responded to allegations from Islamabad that they are not responsible for Pakistan’s domestic security.
