Pakistan Taliban end truce, call for attacks

Pakistan’s Taliban said yesterday they have called off a shaky ceasefire agreed with the government in June and ordered fighters to stage attacks across the country.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a separate entity to the Taliban in Afghanistan but sharing a similar Islamist ideology, have been responsible for dozens of violent attacks and hundreds of deaths across Pakistan since emerging in 2007. “As military operations are ongoing against mujahideen in different areas ... so it is imperative for you to carry out attacks wherever you can in the entire country,” it said in a statement. The TTP held sway over vast tracts of Pakistan’s rugged tribal belt for a time, imposing a radical version of Sharia.

Emboldened

Its fighters were largely driven out of Pakistan into neighbouring Afghanistan from 2010 but have been emboldened by the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in Kabul.

The TTP agreed a ceasefire with the Pakistan government in June but both sides have repeatedly claimed the truce was ignored and there have been numerous clashes.