Responding to a heightened risk of terrorist attacks by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistan Ministry of Interior has issued a nationwide alert asking for “extreme vigilance”, instructing that targeted search and strike missions be carried out wherever militant activity is reported, local media reported.
In a letter circulated last month, the Ministry of Interior warned that more than year-long peace negotiations between the TTP and the government of Pakistan “had come to a standstill”, which has led to unease within the TTP’s ranks, Dawn reported.
It urged all authorities to heighten security and exercise enhanced vigilance to avoid any untoward incident, Dawn reported.
It noted that the TTP accuses the Pakistani government of failing to fulfil its main demand – the reversal of the merger of former Fata with KP – as well as continuing to detain TTP members while a truce was still being negotiated.
The ministry warned that the group or its splinter factions might also seek to escalate terrorist activities in the coming days to avenge the killing of their commanders and to show strength in case there is no further progress in peace negotiations.
The federal government said it had learnt that the TTP high command met recently in Paktika, Afghanistan, to discuss the deadlock in peace talks and the fate of the negotiations with the Pakistani government after the killing of TTP commanders Omer Khalid Khorasani and Aftab Parkay, Dawn reported.
The notice said the TTP top brass, fearing a complete breakdown of the talks, decided to move their families to secure places as they feared Pakistani security forces would launch a kinetic operation in case of failure of talks. Some of the militants’ families may be moved to Karachi and its adjoining areas, the notice warned, Dawn reported.
The interior ministry also took grave notice of reports that TTP militants are attempting to migrate to North and South Waziristan from Afghanistan to set up camp for future attacks. It described reports of the arrival of TTP militants in areas neighbouring the Pak-Afghan border as well as deeper within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as “a worrisome phenomenon”.
It said that known militant commanders based in Waziristan – Abu Yaha, Molvi Munawar and Matoob Ali Jan alias Sailab – have been in contact with the TTP high command in Afghanistan for further directions regarding moving to the area to intensify terrorist activities.
The government also highlighted the risk of TTP sub-groups defecting to the militant Islamic State (ISKP) or joining hands with the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group to resume terrorist activities, Dawn reported.
