Suicide attack raises fresh questions

The suicide bomber attack on Sunday at a rally of Jamiat-ul-Ulema Islam (Fazl) in the Khar, in the district of Bajaur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghanistan border, has been another instance in the region of terrorist attacks. The death toll of the Sunday attack had risen to 54 by Monday evening and that of the injured to 90. Among those killed were JUI-F’s Khar district general secretary Ziaullah Jan and Khar press secretary of the party Mujahid Khan. The blast was condemned by Pakistan Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif and former prime minister Imran Khan. Interior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said on social media that “religion of terrorism was only terrorism” and she asserted “Ending terrorism is very important for the survival and integrity of Pakistan.” The provincial police now suspect that it is the handiwork of Islamic State-Khurasan (IS-K). The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which had carried out a terror attack earlier this year in a mosque in Peshawar in which 80 officers were killed had condemned the Sunday attack and denied its involvement. The ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan too has condemned the attack. Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman of Afghan Taliban said, “Such crimes cannot be justified in any way.”

What is surprising is that the attack has targeted an Islamist party like JUI-F, which is part of ruling coalition. The TTP had been carrying out terrorist attacks with the intention of establishing a Sharia-based Islamic state in Pakistan. The security forces believe that there is an alliance between the Balochistan rebels, the TTP and Al Qaeda. But the emergence of IS-K raises fresh concerns. Pakistan is forced to fight the terrorists on multiple fronts.

Even the Taliban government in Kabul is facing a threat from groups like IS-K, which shows that even among the Islamist groups there has risen an intense rivalry. The Taliban in Afghanistan have also distanced themselves from TTP but Pakistan officials are concerned that the TTP finds a safe haven inside the Afghan territory. A recent report of think-tank, Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies said, “The involvement of Afghan nationals in acts of terrorism in Pakistan is another important concern that needs to be addressed. Such attacks are intolerable and would elicit an effective response from the security forces in Pakistan.”

The situation makes Pakistan a vulnerable state in the region and a target of terror groups. It is also clear that the Taliban government in Kabul is not in a strong position to check the operations of extremist groups from within the territory of Afghanistan. This makes the situation doubly complicated. It implies that the Taliban government would need economic support from other countries and also it needs to be strengthened internally in terms of security. The Taliban will have to be prepared to stave off the activities of the extremist groups like IS-K and others. And the Afghan government should not be seen as a mute spectator of these non-state actors operating from its territory.

This would mean that the governments in Islamabad and Kabul will have to come to an agreement to counter the terrorist groups through collective action. And it would be difficult to achieve because most countries including Russia and China, the Central Asian neighbours of Afghanistan have been discussing the security issue but they have not come to a clear understanding that the Taliban in power in Afghanistan are threatened by other extremist groups. With the Americans and other Western countries have turned their back on Afghanistan after conceding victory to the Taliban, it would seem that no one is paying attention to the new terror threats emanating from Afghan territory.