The banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has ended its ceasefire with the Pakistan government and resumed its attacks security forces’ personnel in Pakistan jeopardising peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. To make matters worse, some TTP dissidents are reportedly joining Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) or Daesh in Afghanistan raising security concerns for both Pakistan and the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

The TTP announced its decision to end the ceasefire on on December 10 and directed its operatives to resume their operations. Since then, it has been attacking Pakistan’s security forces almost every other day in the tribal districts of KP. Meanwhile, the IS-K continues its operations in Afghanistan. Besides some individual targetted killing, the IS-K has attacked a military hospital in Kabul, killing 25 people and injuring over 50. According to reports, Taliban fighters and some former government soldiers were being treated at the hospital.

The attack really irked the Taliban who have now started a hunt for IS-K fighters. The Afghan Taliban are also upset that some dissidents from the TTP are joining the IS-K. This is a matter of grave concern for Pakistan as well.

Highly informed intelligence sources tell The News on Sunday (TNS) that Pakistan is in contact with the Afghan Taliban on concerns pertaining to the IS-K. Pakistani intelligence agencies and provincial Counter Terrorism Departments (CTDs) have busted several sleeper cells of the Daesh in the Punjab and Sindh as late as last month.

“Afghan Army Chief Qari Fasihud Din is personally taking care of the operations against the IS-K. In this connection, he visited Kunar, once a stronghold of the Daesh, to supervise an operation last week. He has announced that the Daesh and the TTP activists joining it would not be spared,”

Pakistan had seen a relatively peaceful month in November 2021 after it started peace talks with the TTP with Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan as acting as a mediator. The two sides initially reached an agreement according to which five-member committees from both sides would discuss the next course of action and demands from both sides under the supervision of the mediator.

According to the agreement, Pakistan was supposed to release 102 TTP leaders. Some of those have been released.

A high-ranking security official privy to the talks says, “It was really impossible to meet all TTP demands. The government was already under immense criticism for having initiated these talks.”

However, the TTP issued a statement on December 9 saying that “Pakistan government failed to implement the decisions reached between the two sides.” It says the security forces of Pakistan conducted raids in Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwat, Swat, Bajaur, Swabi and North Waziristan, killing and detaining several TTP operatives in breach of the agreement.

The government had asked the TTP to extend the ceasefire but the TTP said, “The TTP cannot extend the ceasefire under these circumstances.”

Earlier in an audio message released on the same day, the TTP chief, Mufti Noor Wali Mahsud, announced an end to the ceasefire and asked his fighters to resume attacks past midnight. The ceasefire had come into effect on November 9.

In the audio, Masud can be heard telling his operatives that the TTP has not heard back from the IEA or the Pakistan government. Therefore, he says, past midnight, his fighters reserve the right to resume attacks from their areas.

A high-ranking security official privy to the talks says, “It was really impossible to meet the TTP demands. The government was already under immense criticism for having initiated these talks. Their demands for release of all of their operatives and reversing the merger of FATA into KP were impossible to meet.” “Still, we were considering other options and had sought an extension in ceasefire but the TTP did not extend it.”

With the ceasefire coming to an end, Pakistan and the TTP have gone back to their previous positions. The TTP has been targetting security forces in most of the cases. It has not turned to the common people yet. In a recent statement, a TTP spokesman denied that the TTP was involved in the killing of a PPP leader in Bannu. In the past, their spokesmen Shahid Ullah Shahid and Ehsanullah Ehsan would claim responsibility for attacks on civilians, particularly political leaders.

If the TTP goes for an alliance with the Daesh or the Daesh gets enough manpower from the TTP’s dissidents, it can wreak havoc on Pakistan’s security landscape.

The IS-K was founded in 2014. Khorasan was supposed to include Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran and Central Asian States. A three-member IS delegation led by Al Zubair Al-Kuwaiti had then visited Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Pakistan, Jundullah, Jaishul Adl, Jamaatul Ahrar, a splinter group of the TTP, the TTP’s Shehryar Group and the then spokesman Shahidullah Shahid had announced their support for the ISAP. A spokesman for Jundullah, Fahad Marwat, had told this scribe in 2014, “We have announced our support for the IS and several other groups are with us.”

Haji Daud, a commander of the TTP’s Sheryar group had also announced his support for the IS. Daud had belonged to Karachi. Hafiz Saeed Orakzai, head of the TTP’s Orakzai group, was appointed as the IS chief for India and Pakistan. Saeed was killed in a drone strike.

The IS-K was active in Afghanistan and Pakistan until 2019 under the name of IS-Khorasan, but in May 2019, Pakistan was declared a separate zone.

Pakistan will have to keep a tight watch on the Daesh and the TTP operatives.

The writer is a senior journalist, teacher of journalism, writer and analyst. He tweets at @BukhariMubasher