In the fog of war, Pak Taliban says Islamabad is its sworn enemy

New Delhi, Aug 10: Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) also known as Pakistani Taliban has released a new video in which it shows the training of its fighters at an unknown location in Waziristan in Pakistan.

The two-minute video clip, shared by a Pakistani journalist on social media, the TTP chief Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud is seen threatening the Pakistani security forces. Mehsud calls upon all terrorist Jihadi organisations to join TTP against its fight against the Pakistani government. The video was made by the Umar Media, the propaganda wing of the outfit.

TTP or Pakistani Taliban claims that Ustad Aslam group pledged allegiance to TTP Chief Mufti Noor Wali. Ustad Aslam alias Qari Yasin was involved in several high-profile terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Last month, the chief of the terrorist organization of Pakistani Taliban, Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, in his first ever TV interview to CNN had explained how he was helping the dream of the "big brother" Afghan Taliban to establish Greater Afghanistan, which includes tribal areas of Pakistan. He told the channel that the TTP is fighting along with the Taliban in Afghanistan, but the group's main "goal" is to have its "own'' independent country.

"Our fight is only in Pakistan and we are at war with the Pakistani forces. We are firmly hoping to take control of Pakistani border regions and make them independent," declared Mehsud from his unclosed hideout in Waziristan near the Durand line, the disputed border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Umar Media, the TTP's media wing Umar Media has claimed that in July alone, the group killed 56 "enemy personnel" and wounded 35 others in 26 attacks carried out mostly in the insurgents' erstwhile stomping ground in the northwest tribal areas bordering eastern Afghanistan.

It is now widely believed that the TTP was responsible for the deadly July 14 attack on a bus near Dasu dam in which nine Chinese engineers were killed.

A Pakistani journalist who did not wish to be named told India Narrative that it is "illusory" to maintain a distinction between the TTP and the Afghan Taliban. "Both are actually the same side of the coin. Any effort to differentiate between the two is utterly delusional and harmful," he observed.

As prominent Pakistani politician Faratullah Babar cautioned the Pakistani government and its Army that Pakistan has been treating Afghan Taliban as friends while Afghan Taliban's twin, the TTP, poses an existential threat to Pakistan. So, a blowback to Pakistan's gamble to support the Afghan Taliban in the hope that it can subsequently target the TTP is eminently possible.