Groups against Pak, China step up attacks amid Afghan turmoil

As the Taliban stepped up attacks to gain control over Afghanistan in the wake of the withdrawal of the US troops, militant groups opposed to Pakistan and China have also increased their assaults, according to a media report.

Amid the chaos, previously defeated insurgent groups with bones to pick against both Pakistan and China are once more on the rise, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

The Tehreek-e-taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has been waging an insurgency against Pakistan for several years, has become active in tribal areas as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with efforts to take control of several areas. The TTP headed by Noor Wali Mehsud, who is close to Taliban, has strategically redeployed its forces along vulnerable stretches of the porous border with Pakistan, the report said.

A parallel uptick in attacks on Pakistani security forces by Baloch separatists, many of them using roadside bombs they learned to make from the TTP, has raised concerns that the two insurgent groups could use shared logistical networks to expand the range of their attacks, it said.

Unlike the TTP, the four Baloch rebel groups operating under the umbrella of the Baloch Raaji Aajoi Sangar are violently opposed to China’s operation of Gwadar port and other projects in Balochistan under the $60-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

During the recent fighting in eastern and southern districts of Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban has been supported by the TTP insurgents who fled there in 2015 to escape Pakistani military’s counteroffensive on their strongholds in tribal areas along the border.