Pakistani Taliban

Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan
تحریک طالبان پاکستان Pakistani Taliban Movement
Flags used by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan[1]
Also known as	Pakistani Taliban (پاکستانی طالبان)
Leaders	Baitullah Mehsud †[2] (2007–09) Hakimullah Mehsud †[3][4] (2009–13) Fazal Hayat †[5] (2013–18) Noor Wali Mehsud (since 2018)
Dates of operation	December 2007 – present
Allegiance	Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (self-declared, publicly rejected by IEA)[6][7]
Motives	Fundamentalism[8][9][10] Pashtunwali[11] Wahhabism[12] Sectarianism[13] Separatism[14][15][16][17]
Headquarters	Eastern Afghanistan[18]
Ideology	Wahhabism[12] Islamic fundamentalism[8][9][10][19] Pashtunwali[11] Sectarianism[13] Separatism[14][15][16][17]
Notable attacks	2008 Barcelona terror plot, 2010 Sikh beheadings by the Taliban, Kidnapping of Swiss tourists in Balochistan, 2014 Peshawar school massacre, Attack on Malala Yousafzai, 2016 Lahore suicide bombing, Lahore church bombings, Dasu bus attack
Size	25,000 in 2014[20] 3,000–5,000 in Afghanistan in 2019 (according to U.S. Department of Defense)[21][22] 3,000-5,500 in Afghanistan in 2022 (UN intelligence estimates)[23] 7,000–10,000 in 2022 (Pakistani government estimate)[24]
Allies	Afghan Taliban (denied by the Afghan Taliban)[25][26][6][7] Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi[27] Al-Qaeda Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan
Opponents	China[28]  Pakistan ISAF
Battles and wars	Global War on Terrorism, Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Designated as a terrorist group by	Argentina[29]  Bahrain[30]  Canada[31]  Pakistan[32]  Japan[33]  New Zealand[34]  United Arab Emirates[35][36][37]  United Kingdom[38]  United States[39]  United Nations[40][41]

The Pakistani Taliban (Urdu: پاکستانی طالبان), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (تحریکِ طالبان پاکستان, lit. 'Pakistani Taliban Movement', abbr. TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani border. Formed in 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud, its current leader is Noor Wali Mehsud, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban (a.k.a. Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan).^[23][2] The Pakistani Taliban share a common ideology with the Afghan Taliban and have assisted them in the 2001–2021 war, but the two groups have separate operation and command structures.^[25][26]

Most Taliban groups in Pakistan coalesce under the TTP.^[42] Among the stated objectives of TTP is resistance against the Pakistani state.^[2][43] The TTP's aim is to overthrow the government of Pakistan by waging a terrorist campaign against the Pakistan armed forces and the state.^[44] The TTP depends on the tribal belt along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, from which it draws its recruits. The TTP receives ideological guidance from and maintains ties with al-Qaeda.^[44] After the Pakistani military operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, some of the TTP militants escaped from Pakistan to Afghanistan,^[45] where some of them joined Islamic State – Khorasan Province, while others remained part of the TTP.^[46] As of 2019^[update], there are around 3,000 to 4,000 TTP militants in Afghanistan, according to a United States Department of Defense report.^[21][47][48] Between July and November 2020, the Amjad Farouqi group, one faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the Musa Shaheed Karwan group, Mehsud factions of the TTP, Mohmand Taliban, Bajaur Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, and Hizb-ul-Ahrar merged with TTP. This reorganization made TTP more deadly and led to increased attacks.^[49]

In 2020, after years of factionalism and infighting, the TTP under the leadership of Noor Wali Mehsud underwent reorganization and reunification. Mehsud has essentially steered the TTP in a new direction, sparing civilians and ordering assaults only on security and law enforcement personnel, in an attempt to rehabilitate the group's image and distance them from the Islamic State militant group's extremism.^[50]

After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistan was unable to persuade the Afghan Taliban to crack down on the TTP.^[51] The Afghan Taliban instead mediated talks between Pakistan and the TTP, leading to the release of dozens of TTP prisoners in Pakistan and a temporary ceasefire between the Pakistani government and the TTP.^[52][53][54] After the ceasefire expired on 10 December 2021, the TTP increased attacks on Pakistani security forces from sanctuaries inside Afghanistan. The Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan's Khost and Kunar provinces on 16 April 2022 appeared to have been conducted in retaliation to the surge in terror attacks in Pakistan.^[55]