South Asia Terrorism Portal
TTP: Insidious Intent Sanchita Bhattacharya Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management
On October 20, 2021, two soldiers and two Police officers were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, in the Bajaur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack.
On September 30, 2021, two persons, including a Pakistan Army Captain and a TTP ‘commander’ Khawaza Din aka Sher Khan were killed during an Intelligence-Based Operation (IBO) in the Tank District of KP. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), after receiving information about the presence of TTP terrorists in the area, the Security Forces (SFs) were conducting an operation.
On August 29, 2021, terrorist fire from across the border in Afghanistan killed two Pakistani soldiers in the Bajaur District of KP. The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack in a Telegram message.
According to partial data collated by South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), since the Taliban ‘takeover’ of Afghanistan (August 15, 2021), the TTP has killed at least 41 persons, including 35 SF personnel and six civilians, in 21 attacks across Pakistan (data till October 24, 2021). In the preceding corresponding period, the TTP had killed only one trooper in one attack.
On the other hand, since August 15, SFs have killed 34 TTP cadres (data till October 24). In the corresponding period preceding August 15, eight TTP terrorists were killed. In the most recent incident, on October 20, 2021, three TTP terrorists were killed in a Police raid in the Shahpur area of Peshawar District in KP.
TTP-linked incidents have surged rapidly since the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
However, a revival of TTP activities has been visible since the beginning of the current year. According to a Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS) report released on October 13, 2021, TTP-linked killings, which had started to decline since 2018 and had come down to their lowest, at 140, in 2020, increased again to reach 171 in 2021. Moreover, the surge picked up momentum from July 2021. Between, July and September 2021, the group carried out 44 attacks, claiming 73 lives.
Pakistan Security Report: 2010-2020
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Indeed, on September 24, 2021, disturbed by the worsening graph of TTP violence, Prime Minister Imran Khan asserted that Pakistan would work with the authorities in Afghanistan to halt TTP and other sources of terrorism emanating from the neighbouring country. He said Pakistan was “extremely concerned” about the threat of terrorism from Afghanistan, particularly from the TTP.
It is pertinent to recall here that, in August 2020, the TTP had reunified, absorbing its splinter factions: the Hakimullah Mehsud Group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, and Hizb-ul-Ahrar. Likewise, the Saifullah Kurd faction of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), under the leadership of Khushi Muhammad; and the Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) factions of Amjad Farooqi and Ustad Ahmad Farooq, merged with TTP.
Further, in July 2020, TTP ‘chief’ Noor Wali Mehsud articulated his group’s new vision of separating the ex-FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) region, which is now merged with KP, from Pakistan through a jihadist struggle and to create a Sharia-ruled state there. TTP’s new rhetoric is consistent with the Afghan Taliban’s position of refusing to recognize the Durand Line as a legal border and opposing its fencing by Pakistan because it has divided the Pashtun tribes.
Significantly, the Doha deal of February 29, 2020, between the US and the Taliban had more or less assured the Taliban’s dominant position in Afghanistan and had emboldened the TTP, given the close ties between the two outfits. TTP had been significantly diminished over the preceding years.
In the most recent assertion of the close ties between the two outfits, on October 20, 2021, Zabihullah Mujahid, ‘spokesperson’ for the Afghan Taliban, declared in an interview, “The relationship between the TTP and the Afghan Taliban will continue to be dictated by religious-ideological convergence, ethnic-fraternal linkages and close camaraderie.” The Afghan Taliban enhances the resources and legitimacy of TTP. TTP operatives have been trained and educated at the same religious seminaries that produced the Afghan Taliban, and have been blooded in the Afghan war, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Afghan Taliban.
Unsurprisingly, like the Taliban, the TTP is also forcing the media to toe to its line. On September 6, 2021, TTP issued a warning to the media and journalists, asking them to refrain from calling the group a ‘terrorist outfit’ or they will be treated as enemies. In a statement released by TTP on social media, its ‘spokesman’ Mohammad Khurasani declared that they were monitoring media coverage branding TTP with hateful titles like “terrorists and extremists.” “Using such terms for TTP showed a partisan role of media and journalists,” Khorasani said, adding that this was a stigma on the profession of journalism. Khurasani argued that the media used such obnoxious terms for the TTP at the behest of ‘one party,’ which had selected it for its rivals. The media should only call them by their name, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Islamabad is trying to buy peace with TTP. On September 10, 2021, President Arif Alvi suggested that the Pakistani Government could consider giving an amnesty to those members of TTP who abjured "criminal activities" and who lay down their weapons and agreed to adhere to the Pakistani Constitution. Further, on October 1, Imran Khan disclosed that his government had initiated a reconciliation process with different groups of TTP to end violence.
As expected at this juncture, TTP has shown little interested in the Government’s overtures. On October 2, TTP ‘spokesman’ Mohammad Khurasani denied media reports about TTP announcing a ceasefire: “The group’s stance is very clear and it has never declared ceasefire.” He also asked his affiliated militants to continue their activities.
As TTP flexes its muscles in Pakistan, particularly in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, the security situation of the country is threatened further. With its Sharia based agenda, the terrorist group will try to carve out a space for itself in the tribal areas. With its present approach of trying to regulate the TTP by coaxing the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistan Government can only experience disappointment and failure.
Communal Surge S. Binodkumar Singh Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On October 16, 2021, the body of a Hindu man, Pranto Das (20), was recovered from a pond next to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple at Chaumuhani in Begumganj Upazila (sub-district) in Noakhali District.
On October 15, 2021, a mob of several thousand people stormed into the Bijoya Durga Temple on College Road in Noakhali District and stabbed Jatan Kumar Saha (38), a member of the executive committee of the temple managing committee. Saha later succumbed to his injuries.
On October 13, 2021, three persons were killed and 15 were injured in Police firing in Comilla District, as the Police tried to prevent an unruly mob from demolishing the Nanoya Durga Puja mandap (platform for religious ceremonies) where Hindu women found the Quran on the lap of a statue of Hanuman. The deceased were identified as Babul (28), Al Amin (18) and Yasin Hossain Hridoy (14). One of the injured persons, Shamim (18), died on October 14.
The series of attacks targeting Hindu communities, started in Comilla District on October 13, and gradually spread to at least another 13 Districts, including Bandarban, Chandpur, Chittagong Cox’s Bazar, Dhaka, Gazipur, Kurigram, Lakshmipur, Moulvibazar, Noakhali, Pabna, Rajshahi and Sylhet. Seven persons were killed and another 99 were injured in the violence. At least 20 puja mandaps and numerous idols were defaced and ransacked by unruly mobs.
Earlier, in March 2021, Hefazat-e-Islam (HeI, 'Protection of Islam'), a Qawmi Madrasa-based radical Islamist group that emerged in 2010, created mayhem in Bangladesh, mostly targeting Hindus. At least 17 people were killed as HeI men clashed with Security Forces (SFs) in different parts of the country, especially in Brahmanbaria District, between March 26 and 28, 2021. The HeI men were on the streets protesting against the two-day visit (March 26-27) of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh. Modi was visiting Bangladesh to participate in the celebrations of Bangladesh's Golden Jubilee of independence. HeI’s links with terrorist groups is well established.
The Hindu community is the biggest minority in Bangladesh's 169 million population, with an estimated population of 12.73 million (8.5 percent). After Partition, the Hindus constituted nearly a quarter of the population of the erstwhile East Pakistan. At the time of the first census in Bangladesh in 1974, the Hindu population had been reduced to 13.5 percent and has been on the decline ever since. According to 2001 Bangladesh population census, the share of the Hindu population had come down to 9.2 per cent and further, down to 8.5 per cent in the 2011 census. The trend is expected to have continued, if not worsened.
Following the recent attacks, the Government and law enforcement agencies have described the incidents as a ‘planned’ bid to destabilize the country. Sohel Mahmud, Additional Superintendent of Police, Chandpur District, asserted, “The attacks were definitely pre-planned.”
Since coming to power in 2009, Sheikh Hasina has controlled Islamist terrorism. Since 2009, 315 Islamist terrorists have been killed and 13,336 have been arrested across the country. The War Crimes (WC) Trials, which began on March 25, 2010, continued thorough all these years. Significantly, there is a strong overlap between the 1971 war crimes’ accused and the Islamist extremist leadership. So far, a total of 125 leaders, including 50 from the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI); 27 from the Muslim League; 11 from Nezam-e-Islami; five from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP); two each from the Jatiya Party and Peoples Democratic Party; 27 former Razakars; and one former Al-Badr member, have been indicted for war crimes. Of these, verdicts have been delivered against 95 accused, including 69 who have been sentenced to death, and 26 to imprisonment for life. So far, six of the 69 people who were awarded the death sentence have been hanged. 32 others are absconding and another 31 cases are currently pending with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, out of 26 persons who were awarded life sentences, five persons have already died while serving their sentences; 13 were absconding and another eight were lodged in various jails of the country. Verdicts against 30 accused are yet to be delivered.
Action against Islamist radicals has also been taken. At least 25 HeI leaders and 881 activists were arrested from across the country for acts of violence in March 2021. Indeed, in a confessional statement before the Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court on April 20, 2021, HeI Assistant Finance Secretary Muhammad Ilias Hamidi admitted that the Islamist outfit's recent violence was aimed at toppling the Government.
Moreover, HeI's direct links with terrorist groups have also come to the fore. On April 28, 2021, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal disclosed, "Hefajat sometimes gets stuck in political entanglements and gets involved with identified militants and criminals who always act against the state." On April 25, 2021, Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Deputy Commissioner Harunor Rashid noted that HeI Joint Secretary General Mamunul Haque had links with the terrorists who carried out the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004, which resulted in the death of 24 people and injured over 400. He also disclosed that Haque had gone to Pakistan with one of the terrorists, to contact extremist groups there. "He had political ambitions. He had been thinking about grabbing power with the help of Jamaat-e-Islami," the official added. All these revelations have come to the fore after Mamunul Haque's arrest from Dhaka city's Mohammadpur area on April 18, 2021, for his involvement in street violence in March 2021. Further, on April 26, 2021, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police asserted, "We have got evidence on Hefajat's links with militant outfits." Similarly, Tohidul Islam, Additional Deputy Commissioner of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, noted,
According to an intelligence report, the 249-member HeI central committee, which was dissolved on April 25, 2021, had at least eight leaders who were either former operatives of HuJI-B or had connections with the terrorist formation.
Unsettled by the Government’s actions, these radical groups are making efforts to reassert themselves by engaging in violence. The recent outbreaks are the part of such planned actions.
Indeed, blaming the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) for the recent attacks, Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud stated on October 18, 2021,
Mahmud also urged all democratic and secular forces to resist the miscreants.
Significantly, on October 18, 2021, Police arrested three BNP leaders in connection with a case filed over temple vandalism and violence in Hathazari, Chittagong District, on October 13. They are Fakir Ahmed (60), convener of the Mirsarai municipality unit, Mohammad Zahid Hussain (30), joint convener of the unit, and Nazrul Islam (35), a local BNP leader. On October 21, 2021, JeI leader Mohamad Kamal Uddin Abbasi gave a confessional statement before a court over his involvement in the vandalism at puja mandaps and the clash with the Police in Hajiganj, Chandpur District. In his statement, he also revealed the names of others involved in the incident. JeI leader Abbasi was arrested on October 20, after the Police evaluation of CCTV footage.
So far, 102 cases have been filed in different parts of the country in connection with the attacks between October 13 and 22. As many as 583 people have been arrested over the attacks on puja venues, temples, Hindu homes and businesses, and for spreading rumours on social media amid the Durga Puja, the largest festival of Bengali Hindus.
Meanwhile, demonstrating the Bangladesh Government's intention of taking the radical Islamist challenge head-on, Bangladesh State Minister for Information Murad Hassan declared, during a press conference on October 15, 2021,
Reiterating the Government's commitment on secularism, on October 19, 2021, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina observed,
Islam was made the state religion by a Constitutional amendment during the reign of General H.M. Ershad in 1988. The ruling Awami League enjoys an absolute majority in Parliament, with its coalition accounting for 280 seats in the 300-member House.
Indeed, the attacks on Durga Puja venues, temples and Hindu establishments are part of a planned Islamist conspiracy to embarrass and undermine the Sheikh Hasina Government for taking actions against radicals, more recently against the HeI. This is a dangerous situation, unless the Government moves quickly to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice. A strong campaign to intensify the crackdown against Islamists and their leaders is required to root out the radical elements and their underpinning ideology in the country.
Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia October 18-24, 2021
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Total (South Asia)
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The South Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR) is a weekly service that brings you regular data, assessments and news briefs on terrorism, insurgencies and sub-conventional warfare, on counter-terrorism responses and policies, as well as on related economic, political, and social issues, in the South Asian region.
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