The ceasefire declared by the Taliban in the country last June was only partially respected.
The Pakistani Taliban announced Monday, November 28 the end of the ceasefire they had declared in June but which was only very partially respected, and ordered their fighters to carry out attacks throughout Pakistan.
“As military operations continue against the mujahideen in different areas (…) it is imperative that you carry out attacks wherever possible in the countryasked the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of its men, according to a statement.*
Ceasefire not really respected
The TTP had extended indefinitely in June a truce in progress for a few weeks, due to “progressin the peace negotiations with representatives of the Pakistani state that began in May in the Afghan capital, Kabul, under the mediation of the Afghan Taliban.
But this ceasefire was never really respected, neither by the TTP which continued its attacks, no longer directed against civilians as before but mainly against the security forces, nor by the Pakistani army which continued to chase his fighters.
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Tens of thousands of Pakistani civilians killed
The TTP is a separate group from the Afghan Taliban. But he shares with them the same ideology and a long common history, and was invigorated by their return to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, with the withdrawal of American forces after two decades of war. It was created in 2007 by Pakistani jihadists allied with al-Qaeda, who had fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s before opposing Islamabad’s support for the Americans after the invasion of that country in 2001. .
Born in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan, on the border with Afghanistan, the TTP has killed tens of thousands of Pakistani civilians and members of the security forces in less than a decade. Weakened from 2014 by intense army operations, it has come back in force since the summer of 2020 and even more so since the Afghan Taliban came to power.
Pakistan accuses the latter of letting the TTP plan its attacks from Afghan soil, which Kabul has constantly denied.