Post Taliban Afghanistan: The Future of Militancy in Pakistan

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and the subsequent takeover of Taliban has reinvigorated militancy in the border region of Pakistan.

The border region formerly known as a Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) became home to domestic and international terrorist organizations such as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al-Qaeda, Afghan Taliban and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) after 9/11.

FATA was used as a training ground for orchestrating terrorist attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States (US) and European countries. Domestically the terrorists unleashed an era of terror killing thousands of innocent people. They assassinated Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and shot Malala Yousafzai.

They attacked schools, health facilities and banned polio vaccination. The 7/7 London attacks and New York attacks 2010 were planned by the TTP in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s security forces conducted military operations against the militants and militancy began to decline after 2016.

However, the recapturing of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021 has provided new energy to the militants fighting in the tribal areas. They are grouping. They are seeking alliance with international terrorist groups and can them refuge in the tribal areas. This project will investigate the re-emergence of TTP addressing the following key questions.

What are the key factors responsible for the re-emergence of TTP in Pakistan? How the re-emergence of Pakistan Taliban can pose challenges for women in the area?

How the alliance of TTP with international terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and IS-K can create challenges for global security?

What are the policy options for Pakistan and the world to counter the re-emergence of TTP and its alliance with other terrorist groups?