Pakistani Taliban: The Most Powerful Anti-State Actor in the Country
by Lawrence A. Franklin • February 10, 2023 at 5:00 am
Commander Noor Wali Mehsud, the head of Pakistan's most formidable terrorist network, Tehreek-e-Taliban, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, recently threatened to assassinate Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the leaders of Pakistan's coalition government.
When the Taliban ended its ceasefire, substantive details of the talks were leaked to the Pakistani media, revealed the startling concessions that the government appeared about to make to the Taliban.
It appears that the government was prepared to grant many of the Taliban's demands: to release hundreds of terrorist prisoners, withdraw tens of thousands of soldiers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, and to institute shari'a law in the province's Malakand region.
US National Security Advisor Ned Price laughably urged Afghan Taliban leaders to live up to their pledge not to permit Afghanistan's territory to be used as a launching pad to threaten other countries. Good luck with that.
Pakistani analysts and journalists predict that the Pakistani Taliban is becoming the most potent threat to the state and that Pakistan faces a bleak year ahead in 2023.
Commander Noor Wali Mehsud, the head of Pakistan's most formidable terrorist network, Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, recently threatened to assassinate Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the leaders of Pakistan's coalition government.
Sharif heads the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), the larger party in the coalition. Zardari runs the smaller partner, the Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP).
On December 31, 2022, Mehsud informed Sharif and Zardari in separate letters that they would be killed if the government did not halt its US-inspired war against the Pakistani Taliban terrorists.
