RECENT statements by the army’s top brass, as well as the Afghan Taliban leadership, indicate that there is some convergence on how to handle the TTP problem. Pakistan has long stated that the banned group is using Afghan soil as a base to attack this country, though Kabul’s rulers have denied this. Speaking at an event in Peshawar on Monday, army chief Gen Asim Munir said that while talks could be held with the interim Afghan government, there was no chance of dialogue with the TTP. The COAS also referred to the banned TTP as ‘khawarij’, a term taken from early Islamic history which denotes a group that is outside the religious mainstream. The term has been applied by various Muslim governments and ulema to describe militant groups. In a related development, the Afghan Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has also issued an important decree recently. According to the Taliban defence minister, the group’s reclusive leader has said that those leaving Afghanistan to wage “jihad” abroad despite orders from the “emir” to stop were not partaking in holy war, but “hostility”. This pronouncement has relevance because it comes not from the Taliban’s political centre of Kabul, but from the ideological fountainhead of Kandahar.

Both the security leadership and the Afghan Taliban have begun to use theological arguments against the TTP. Perhaps this is the result of Asif Durrani’s visit to Kabul last month. As per reports, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan took up the issue of TTP terrorism with his Afghan hosts, and these developments can be seen in that light. While the TTP leadership structure is separate from that of the Afghan Taliban, it will be difficult for the former, morally at least, to ignore Mullah Akhundzada’s edict on not waging ‘jihad’ across borders. According to some media reports, the Afghan Taliban have already begun to shift TTP militants away from the border, and more relocations are planned. Of course, other anti-Pakistan militants can also be found in the Afghan-Pakistan border region, such as IS-K, but reining in the TTP will address one of Pakistan’s major security concerns. Security-related contacts between Islamabad and Kabul should continue, and the Taliban need to deliver on their promise of stopping the TTP’s anti-Pakistan activities, while the military must remain alert, particularly in the militancy-affected provinces of KP and Balochistan.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2023