Daily Times

The interview of the leader of a designated terrorist organization with an American news channel has generated a lot of heat, with questions being asked about the timing of its airing and whether it was aimed at stirring instability, as the US forces withdraw from Pakistan.

The analysts termed CNN’s interview of Noor Wali Mehsud an attempt to legitimize the terrorist organization and place it parallel to the Afghan Taliban, despite the fact that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was a US-designated terrorist organization, already neutralized by Pakistan, while the United States and other countries were holding negotiations with the Afghan Taliban.

The TTP, which had targeted innocent Pakistanis including women and children through several heinous attacks against both civilians and armed forces, seems to be changing its stance to protect its illicit activities under the cover of Islamization.

Command Eleven – an open source intelligence think tank, specializing in counter-terrorism, insurgency and extremism – pointed out that the TTP was a defunct terror group that was fighting to regroup under the ISPP (Islamic State Province of Pakistan) banner, as their strength and relevance in Afghanistan had been decimated.

The TTP leader’s interview also revived the memories of gruesome attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, in which 150 people, including 134 schoolchildren, were massacred.

“Does CNN give airtime to all UN-designated global terrorists or made an exception in the case of Afghanistan-based most wanted terrorist leader of the TTP responsible for deadly attacks against Pakistan, including the massacre of our children?” questioned Sana Jamal, an Islamabad based journalist.

The people on Twitter described the TTP as a terrorist organization and said any effort by the media to resuscitate it by portraying it as a legitimate, reformed, and human rights focused organization would have devastating consequences for the region.

The 27th report of the United Nations Analytical and Monitoring Team highlighted that the TTP had gained strength after a number of militant groups united under its umbrella, which had “resulted in a sharp increase in attacks in the region”, including “more than 100 cross-border attacks (into Pakistan)”.

The TTP surfaced in 2007 as an organization comprising a number of local militias along Pakistan’s northwestern belt bordering Afghanistan and demanded the imposition of a strict form of Islamic law across the country.

The group carried out dozens of large-scale suicide attacks, bombings and other attacks targeting Pakistani civilians and security forces till 2014, when the Pakistani military launched a massive operation against its headquarters in North Waziristan. Many were killed and the remaining escaped across the border into eastern Afghanistan.

After being dislodged, the TTP’s ringleaders took refuge in Afghanistan and carried out attacks on Pakistan, including the one on APS Peshawar.

However in recent months, since the TTP’s reunification, a spike has been witnessed in targeted attacks against security forces and tribal elders in North Waziristan.

The Counter-Terrorism Department has successfully foiled several attacks and arrested a number of militants. Interrogation of several TTP members revealed that they were being funded by Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies.

This fact was also reported by an Indian author – Avinash Paliwal, who, in his book, admitted that the Indian consulates in Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan, were actively supporting Baloch militant groups and the TTP through funneling of funds by India’s intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) via Dubai.

According to a United Nations report, over 6,000 terrorists belonging to the TTP and ISKP (Islamic State Khorasan Province), including globally designated terrorist commanders Noor Wali and Khorassani, are enjoying Safe havens in Afghanistan.

The TTP, meanwhile, is trying to legitimate itself by aligning its narrative with the PTM (Pashtun Tahafuz Movement) as its demands now focus on the rights of Pashtuns and Baloch, in a bid to cover up its terrorist acts. Unfortunately, several innocent Pashtuns have fallen victim to their brutality in the areas it once operated.

The alignment of TTP and PTM comes as both join hands against the writ of the state in the erstwhile FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), and are adopting anti-state and anti-army narratives of libellous activists to gain their sympathies.

Lt Gen (Retd) Shafaat Shah, former Corps Commander Lahore and Ambassador of Pakistan to Jordan, said the TTP was a banned organization by the US and here its terrorist leader was giving an interview on CNN .

“(It) shows contacts, sponsorships by Afghan Intelligence, RAW & CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), otherwise CNN team would not have got access to him,” the former ambassador said.