Last Updated: March 22, 2024, 21:34 IST
The Taliban authorities mentioned that the scenario alongside the Af-Pak border is at the moment calm. Pakistani forces additionally mentioned there’s silence alongside the border. (Reuters File Photo)
Tensions simmering alongside the Pak-Afghan border have lately erupted into violence but once more, with a well-known participant returning to the forefront — Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s militant group.
Pakistan lately carried out two air strikes in Afghanistan, killing 5 ladies and three kids. In response, the Taliban on Monday mentioned it fired heavy weapons at Pakistani forces alongside the border in retaliation.
The neighbouring nations have traded blame over who’s liable for a latest spate of Islamist militant assaults in Pakistan. Islamabad mentioned the March 16 suicide assault on a Pakistani army submit in North Waziristan was launched from Afghan soil. Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban denies this.
The Pakistani overseas workplace, in a press release, mentioned it had carried out “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations in the border regions inside Afghanistan”. It added the strikes focused members of the Hafiz Gulf Bahadur, saying the return of a well-known militant group to the forefront.
Who is Hafiz Gul Bahadur?
What is being seen as a shift from being hailed because the “good Taliban” to being labeled because the “bad Taliban,” the Bahadur outfit has lately been concerned in terror assaults in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s southern area, elevating questions concerning the group’s place inside nation’s militant panorama dominated by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Bahadur, a distinguished determine from the Mada Khel clan of the Uthmanzai Wazir tribe in North Waziristan, has a fancy historical past intertwined with the area’s militant actions, in accordance with a Dawn report. Initially aligning with the US within the “war on terror” post-2001, Bahadur supplied refuge to militants fleeing Afghanistan into Pakistan’s tribal areas, the report.
Despite getting into right into a peace settlement with the Pakistani authorities in 2006, Bahadur maintained ties with the Afghan Taliban, working a suicide coaching camp for the Afghan insurgency. According to the Pak newspaper, his reluctance to hitch the TTP stemmed from a concentrate on the Afghan insurgency reasonably than actions inside Pakistan, in addition to considerations about divisions amongst native Taliban teams and ideological variations.
Links to Haqqani Network, Al Qaeda
Bahadur’s group has benefited from assist from influential teams just like the Haqqani Network, Al Qaeda, and the TTP, receiving essential sources and operational freedom as a result of tribal make-up of the area. The group’s transformation from ‘good’ to ‘bad’ Taliban was marked by the top of the peace settlement in 2014, following a significant army offensive in North Waziristan. The indiscriminate techniques employed through the operation, together with the killing of Bahadur’s family members and displacement of their households, fueled his anti-government stance, in accordance with Dawn.
Recent developments point out a possible shift in Bahadur’s group’s focus in direction of Pakistan, with collaborations with the TTP being reported. The TTP’s goal to turn into the main jihadist power in Pakistan has led to mergers with varied factions, together with Bahadur’s group. Talks of a unified platform between the TTP and Bahadur’s group have raised considerations concerning the safety scenario in south Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the challenges it poses to safety forces.
Bahadur’s group’s evolution from a cooperative entity to an adversarial power inside Pakistan’s militant panorama displays the intricate dynamics of the area’s militant actions and the shifting alliances amongst totally different teams. The latest developments trace at a possible collaboration between Bahadur’s faction and the TTP, posing new challenges to safety forces and elevating considerations concerning the safety scenario within the area.
(With company inputs)
