Counterterrorism Blog

Nearly 75 people killed including security force personnel and over 150 others injured in a deadly suicide blast triggered inside a mosque during Friday prayers near Baghiari check post area in Jamrud (Khyber Agency) on March 27. The Mosque was located on the busy Peshawar-Torkham Highway, which is one of the important NATO supply routes.

Undoubtedly, the blast was targeted at the worshippers (mostly people from nearby villages), and security forces stationed inside and near the Mosque premise. Even though no organization has taken responsibility for the mosque attack, the finger of suspicion pointed towards the Taliban elements who warned to attack security posts on the supply route for NATO and US troops in Afghanistan.

Jamrud is not new to the Taliban’s explosive tactics. The region has witnessed a series of suicide attacks, shootings, kidnappings and lootings, mostly targeted at the NATO supplies, in the recent past. Taliban elements repeatedly warned the administration of severe consequence, if they can’t cease military operations in Khyber, Swat and other tribal areas.

Personnel of Frontier Corps and tribal militia Khyber Khassadar Force (KKF) who are guarding NATO supply routes and involved in counter-Taliban operations, have been bearing the brunt of Taliban/Al Qaeda offensive for quite some time. Earlier this month (March 03), Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) distributed leaflets at Landikotal area urging the Khassadar Force to vacate all the check posts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan Highway in Khyber Agency. After repeated warnings, TTP attacked a KKF checkpoint in the Jaba area of Jamrud where they abducted and later killed at least two KKF personnel.

Late last year, the government launched operation ‘Daraghlum’ (in local Pashto, it means “Here I come”). The recent stepped up Taliban offensive (including Jamrud Mosque attack) perhaps has direct links to that operation. This brief military operation against Taliban and criminals in Khyber Agency resulted in unearthing of large quantity of looted arms, ammunition and other goods, including that of the NATO supplies.

According to sources, for quite some time, Taliban and other militant elements have been gathering inputs about the nearby villagers (of Kafar Tangi, Sur Kamar, Saifr, Ghundai, and Shakas) who helped army and paramilitary in many successful raids in recent months. On February 06 this year Pakistan army killed over 50 Taliban terrorists in an operation near Chapri and Feroz Khel areas along the border of Orakzai and Khyber Agencies in FATA with the help of local inputs (human intelligence). However, the administration misread Taliban’s strength and the operations as success and wrongly believed that they had neutralized all groups operating in Khyber agency.

The Jamrud mosque mayhem happened during a time when the Washington administration announced a new Afghans strategy in which the neighboring Pakistan is key part of the vexed conflict (AfPak). Only couple of days ago, the US has offered 5 million USD as reward to find and capture Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and al Qaeda operative Sirajuddin Haqqani and Abu Yahya Al-Libi. These head money notwithstanding, most of the senior Taliban and Al Qaeda members are still at large and operating with impunity in the tribal dominated areas of Pakistan.

Animesh Roul is the Executive Director of Research at the New Delhi-based Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict (SSPC).