The Eid is over and so does the party without controversy as accustomed to moon sighting. Yet, the resentful jihadist throw a spanner in the works imposing a new challenge to the bemused counterterrorism strategies sweating to plug unending holes popping every now-and-then across Pakistan. Probably, nobody is anew in the game but it’s the rogue selling the old jihadist wine in new bottles.
The State of Denial and Metamorphosis of the Rogue— an unknown jihadist firebrand “Harakat Inqilab Islami Pakistan (IIP)” (The Islamic Revolution Movement of Pakistan) screamed out its existence on social media platforms on March 17. However, in a typical state of denial that we live in, the news was brushed aside by a veteran bureaucrat, the top ‘Babu’ carrying the legacy of colonial ‘desi’ executive functionaries. Puffing an imported Cuban cigar in his comfort zone amid the clinking of Czech crystal toast, the paper-pusher declared “It’s just another franchised group of the firebrands”, conveniently closing the subject as he does the work files.
The alert fizzled out in a couple of days but it raised concerns among the counterterrorism operatives particularly those battling homegrown terrorism in the main urban centers of eastern Punjab province. In his 7-minute Pashtu/Urdu debut announcement the leader of the group, identified as Ghazi Shahabuddin, underlined the manifesto of replacing the State. He also emphasised the collaboration of similar organisations in pursuance of the HIIP objective.
A picture that went viral along with the alert showed ‘keffiyeh’ clad armed militants sporting camouflaged military gear and holding a white flag with the fundamental Islamic Arabic ‘Kalima’ written in black with HIIT name in Urdu under it. The Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP) of the militants and the imitated flag of the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan indicate HIIT origin. The OCP is commonly used in all forms of military, particularly; the United States’ forces that helped in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan to effectively blend in mountainous and desert landscapes.
The Ecdysiasts— “Sir, it’s Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), which has renamed itself,” an insider disclosed to The Friday Times (TFT) on the condition of anonymity because of the high value of the information and associated sensitivity attached to it. “While keeping its individuality, this wing would be operating under the banner of the TTP,” (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan), he added confirming the roadmap of the newer urban firebrand. The JuA (literally means Assembly of the Free) broke off from the parent organisation TTP in August 2014. The only change in the flag that it used multiple times in the past, the TTP is replaced by HIIP.
It might not be the first ecdysiasts molting identity. Immediately after President Pervez Musharraf banned five militant groups on January 12, 2002, one of it, Jaish-e-Muhammed or JEM (the Army of (Prophet) Muhammad (May peace be upon him), was first to rename itself on the very first day as “Al Furqan”.
With the upsurge of violent extremism and rogue militancy, any news or intelligence about them deserves intelligent heed and cannot just be brushed aside or smoked out with the tinkle of toast
The discloser indicates the going modus operandi of the infamous TTP, once the blue-eyed “good Taliban”. The TTP has recently joined hands with the terrorist-separatist insurgent organisation Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) against the State of Pakistan. The TTP has reportedly been serving as the franchising umbrella organisation, in the same pattern as Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban did in the past, and now reinvigorating under its prevalent policy of expansion of the Islamic Emirate beyond the borders of Afghanistan.
Almost a year before the Taliban took over Kabul by storm in August 2021; my analysis was almost disbelieved, in a live television program when I shared the Taliban’s international agenda of expanding the Emirate beyond the Durand Line which they considered as the soft belly. In the initial phase, the Taliban wants to prevail through the franchised organisations to take over later. The Afghan Taliban actually never disowned the TTP in principle.
What’s New in the Bottle— it’s happening for the first time that “even Daesh has been invited to flank the banner of Al Qaeda for the common cause”, the source among the rogue indicated the tip of the iceberg. According to the available information, they are strategising their ultimate goals by establishing a common banner under which all franchised groups would operate in their assigned territory with the assistance of others. The reported objective is to divide Pakistan into three (conflict) zones and each assigned group would work on the accomplishment of the “common cherished” objective, the Islamic Caliphate.
“They know it pretty well that working individually wouldn’t bear fruit but counterproductive”, the insider said, because, the counterterrorism forces would not only neutralise but eliminate them by penetrating inside. “Therefore, it’s in the best of common interest that all (rogue) forces would operate in concerted collaboration,” he elaborated.
Whether Al Qaeda is behind this wider “common cause” of expanding the Islamic Emirate or not, the utopia of ‘Ghazva-e-Hind’ has already knocked our door. This fictitious great battle for Hindustan encompasses the entire Indian sub-continent of yore that was ruled by Muslim invaders for almost millennia. My slain journalist buddy Saleem Shahzad had described it well in his book: “Inside Al Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11”.
The Genesis and the Ruinous Outreach— Initially based in Afghanistan, Lal Pur district of Nangarhar province, JuA launched several attacks on Pakistan in collaboration with the Afghan Taliban. JuA operated under an all-encompassing agenda of terrorism ranging from sectarian to anti-minorities, against the state of Pakistan, foreign missions, and others. JuA claimed three calamitous terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil in November 2014, two in 2015, three in 2016, and two terrorist attacks in 2017. In January 2023 JuA claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a mosque in Peshawar claiming 84 lives and 217 wounded. Although TTP denied its involvement in the attack it remains controversial.
Since November 2017, the JuA splinter group declared a separate identity as Hizbul Ahrar. Although a Pashtun influenced the Wahabi/Salafist terrorist organisation JuA had quietly been working on casting its ethnic Punjabi identity that thrives on sectarian hate. Also, partly housed in the heart of the religiously radicalised Punjab, we found traces of JuA in the historical city of Lahore and so do the roots of its die-hard zealots among the infamous terrorist organisation the Punjabi Taliban or the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Punjab.
The World is on it so Should We— The United Nation’s Security Council’s 1267 Sanctions Committee approved the inclusion of JuA with addresses in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab provinces, in the list of embargos on July 6, 2017. It was designated as a Global Terrorist Organisation under the Specially Designated National and Blocked Persons List (SDN) by the US Department of Treasury and JuA has also been listed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as a terrorist entity with a dozen aliases. The UN decision was hailed by Pakistan.
The way the complex nexus of extremist militancy is unfolding its future roadmap and spreading wings across Pakistan under different employing patrons and the TTP's deeper collusion in corroboration with the Afghan Taliban’s expansion of the empire hankering requires attention. Particularly, with the upsurge of violent extremism and rogue militancy, any news or intelligence about them deserves intelligent heed and cannot just be brushed aside or smoked out with the tinkle of toast.