Islamabad tries to stem the escalation of violence with new military operations

Local authorities have reported killing 16 terrorists in the past week alone. In addition to the threat of the Pakistani Taliban and the claims of the population of Belucistan, new sectarian clashes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have recently been added. But the response of the executive, focused on internal political dynamics, is considered insufficient.

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - The government of Pakistan is responding to the various waves of violence inside the country with a series of ‘intelligence-led’ operations: in the weekend between November 30 and December 1 alone, 16 militiamen were killed in the various provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Belucistan and Punjab, said the army's spokesman agency, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

In the Bannu district, located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, clashes with police forces resulted in the death of five terrorists and the wounding of nine others, while in a separate attack in the Shagai area, part of the Khyber district, three militiamen were killed. Another clash took place in the town of Mianwali, Punjab province, where a group of about 20 fighters attacked the Chapri police station using rocket launchers and hand grenades, according to local officials. Four militiamen were killed. Finally, in the Sherani district of Belucistan, four more suspected terrorists from Afghanistan were killed in a further military operation, according to the police.

The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, a local think-tank, recorded 71 armed attacks in November alone, and security forces reported the death of 127 officers in the same period. From January to the end of the year there were 856 attacks, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,000 civilians and security forces. In 2023, the figure had stood at 645.

The increase in violence in Pakistan has several reasons. In Kurram district, part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where sectarian violence broke out between Sunnis and Shiites in recent days following an attack on a convoy, the death toll rose to 130, with 200 injured, authorities reported. The government tried to broker a cease-fire, but it did not hold. Local officials are trying to reconcile the conflicts (which originate from territorial disputes that were exacerbated by the inclusion of the Pakistani Taliban in the region) through talks with the elders of the various tribes. Even the Taliban (Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan or TTP), who have been targeting the government with attacks for some time because they intend to establish an Emirate modelled on the one in Afghanistan, have put themselves forward as mediators between Sunnis and Shias, suggesting that the dispute be resolved according to Pashtun tradition. Since the return of the Afghan ‘cousins’ to power in 2021, the TTP have felt galvanised and have increased their terrorist actions against the Pakistani security forces. In July and August of this year, they claimed over 200 attacks per month.

In Belucistan, however, most of the attacks are claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army or BLA, an armed independence group designated by the government as a terrorist organisation. On 9 November, an attack on the Quetta railway station killed about 30 people. Soon afterwards, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifha announced the approval of a military operation with the BLA, but without giving further details. Pressure on the Pakistani government has also increased from China because BLA attacks frequently target Chinese workers and engineers who are in Pakistan to manage Beijing's infrastructure projects in Belucistan, a resource-rich region that the local population feels deprived of.

Already in June, Islamabad had announced the deployment of the ‘Azm-e-Istehkam’ operation to put an end to the actions of the various terrorist groups in Pakistan, but according to several analysts, the government does not have the financial resources to conduct a large-scale operation (as it has done in the past, in particular against the TTP), which is why it has switched to proposing ‘intelligence-based operations’. At the same time, experts believe that the government is mainly focused on internal political rivalries.

In the last week, the government in Islamabad has also had to face growing protests by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party led by former premier Imran Khan, who has been in jail for over a year. Although the PTI actually won the last elections, it has been marginalised in the opposition. Although the situation has been restored to normal for the time being, many commentators fear that the protests will recur, probably even more violently.