Daily Times

A series of explosions shook Lakki Marwat when militants attacked a military compound this Thursday in retaliation for a counterterrorism shootout that killed three militants. This is the third time Lakki has become a site of militant violence this year-its surrounding areas are no different with Bannu and Mir Kalam experiencing a similar surge in terrorist activity. The attack follows months of escalated violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the TTP is slowly regaining territorial influence both with the help of sympathisers inside Pakistan and from their ideological twins in adjacent Afghanistan.

Despite the state’s attempts at forcing a reconciliation with the TTP, the group has reconsolidated with a vengeance and with a new narrative that targets high-profile individuals and military personnel, signalling serious trouble for our security apparatus. In the first three months of the last year, a whopping ninety-seven soldiers and officers lost their lives in attacks carried out by the TTP. The attack on a Peshawar mosque earlier this year, targeting a police compound, is one of the deadliest in recent years, its lethality suggesting that the TTP has reconstituted a critical capability of urban attacks.

Much of the TTP’s political leadership is based in Afghanistan which has long used the region as a permissive haven for conducting its campaign of violence in Pakistan. Despite promises to the contrary, the Afghan Taliban has been largely unwilling to restrain the TTP at Pakistan’s behest. There is quite a lot of popular support for the TTP in Afghanistan, further galvanising them to do as they please. Yet until very recently, Pakistani officials were still hopeful about the prospect of negotiations with the Afghan Taliban, overestimating their sway over Kabul.

After downplaying the TTP’s strength as well as the Taliban’s influence on the TTP for years, the Pakistani state is finally contending with the depth of Taliban support for the TTP. Our myopic policies have already caused too much damage and we are only just beginning to realise the implications of getting friendly with an unpredictable militant group. If our security personnel isn’t immune to militant violence, can the rest of us be expected to feel safe? *