Last week, the government of Pakistan and the U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist
Organization Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) agreed to a one-month cea


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Pakistan Forges Agreement With Al-Qaeda Affiliate

 

(New York, N.Y.) – Last week, the government of Pakistan and the
U.S.-designatedForeign Terrorist Organization
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Pakistan (TTP)agreed
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to a one-month ceasefire while the two conduct negotiations in Afghanistan
under the auspices of the Afghan Taliban. According to the Pakistani
government, the ceasefire may extend as talks progress. Established in 2007,
TTP shares an ideology with the Afghan Taliban, has known links to al-Qaeda,
and hasclaimed
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responsibility for tens of thousands of deaths.

 

Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, the
former coordinator of the U.N. Security Council’s ISIL (Da'esh), Al-Qaida and
Taliban Monitoring Team, believes the agreement should be viewed with alarm.

 

“This agreement was brokered with the help of leaders from the Haqqani
network, which is sanctioned by the U.N. and whose members hold key positions
in the Afghanistan Taliban government. It demonstrates that Pakistani officials
are willing to make agreements with internationally recognized al-Qaeda
affiliate groups, favoring certain terror groups over others,” Schindler said.
“All of this illuminates the symbiotic relationship between key leaders of the
Taliban and al-Qaeda networks in the region. This relationship does not bode
well for the current situation and creates space for the accelerating of
rebuilding terrorist infrastructure in the region.”

 

The TTP is an umbrella organization comprised of 13 distinct Pakistani Taliban
factions––approximately half of all Pakistani Taliban factions. Established in
December 2007, the TTP seeks to expel the Pakistani military from the country’s
Federally Administered Tribal Areas, wage defensive jihad against the Pakistani
government, and establish an Islamic state under sharia law in Pakistan. The
TTP provides al-Qaeda members with a haven in parts of Pakistan, while al-Qaeda
provides the TTP with logistical support.

 

Founded in Afghanistan in the 1970s, the Haqqani network is an Afghan
Taliban-affiliated Sunni militant organization operating in southeastern
Afghanistan and North Waziristan, Pakistan. In Waziristan, the Haqqanis run the
notorious Manba Ulom madrassa, which they used to train mujahideen fighters
against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. After the 2001 U.S. invasion of
Afghanistan, the Haqqanis used the madrassa as a training center and meeting
site for al-Qaeda.

 

To read CEP’s resource Pakistan: Extremism and Terrorism, please click here
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To read CEP’s resource Haqqani Network, please click here
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