Pakistan to ‘drain the swamp’ of Taliban-linked militants in US-backed offensive

Pakistan warned that ‘the full force of the state’ would ‘take on all and any entities that resort to violence’, referring to Afghanistan’s Taliban

Public pressure to abandon efforts to negotiate with the TTP has intensified after police on December 23 thwarted an apparent suicide bombing attempt

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Pakistani security officials stand guard on December 24 at a checkpoint following a security high-alert, a day after a suicide blast in Islamabad. Pakistan’s civil and military leadership late Monday issued a warning that “the full force of the state” would “take on all and any entities that resort to violence”. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 7:30pm, 4 Jan 2023

Pakistan appears poised to launch a major ground and air offensive against Tehreek-i Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants that could target hideouts in neighbouring Afghanistan, experts say, as a surge in attacks on security forces threaten to plunge the country back into a cycle of violence.

Dozens of Pakistani soldiers and policemen have been killed and wounded in recent months in near-daily armed assaults, assassinations, roadside bombings and suicide attacks by the TTP, or the Pakistani Taliban, in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, the two western provinces bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s civil and military leadership issued a warning late on Monday that “the full force of the state” would “take on all and any entities that resort to violence”.

Pakistan’s PM Shahbaz Sharif (right) chairs a meeting of the National Security Committee, on January 2. Photo: AP

In a thinly veiled reference to Afghanistan’s Taliban regime – that is separate from the TTP but allied – Pakistan’s national security council warned that “no country will be allowed provide sanctuaries and facilitation to terrorists”.

“Pakistan reserves all rights … to safeguard her people,” said the statement by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office.

Public pressure to abandon efforts to seek a negotiated settlement with the TTP has intensified after police on December 23 thwarted an apparent attempt to launch a suicide bomb attack on Islamabad, the first since 2015. A suspected militant detonated explosives while being chased by police, prompting embassies to warn their citizens to restrict their movements.

“Talks with the TTP have failed, the number of attacks and their geographic spread is rapidly increasing, and political pressure to do something is mounting,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre, a Washington-based think tank. “Something has got to give. Islamabad no longer has the luxury of simply sitting on its hands.”

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