| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| TTP fractures into more than 100 groups |
| 2012-02-25 |
| After Baitullah Mehsud’s death in 2009, the TTP has lost organisational capability Internal rivalries, coupled with a prolonged leadership crisis since militant leader Baitullah Mehsud’s death in August 2009, have diminished the influence of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistani (TTP) as a militant umbrella organisation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), analysts say. Against that backdrop, about 130 major and minor militant groups, some of which have splintered off the TTP, operate in and from a 27,220-sq.-km. area of FATA, said Ashraf Ali, president of the FATA Research Centre, an Islamabad-based think tank dedicated to researching the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal regions. The TTP has not been able to forge a united command ever since it lost its influential commander in an air strike in August 2009, he said. “The TTP is plagued by a leadership crisis as neither its incumbent head Hakeemullah Mehsud – too immature to lead – nor Maulvi Faqir, a leading commander from Bajaur Agency, is in a position to keep it united,” Ali said. “Nobody knows exactly how many militant groups exist these days,” Shah said, referring to the secession from the TTP. The TTP resulted from bringing 40 militant groups together under one umbrella in 2007, Ali said. “Baitullah,” he said, “was the linchpin in keeping the TTP together, as it was because of him that so many militant leaders agreed to form the TTP.” After its creation, the organisation saw its influence grow as many small gangs that were active in FATA started joining its ranks, Mansoor Khan Mehsud, director of research at the FATA Research Centre, told Central Asia Online. After Baitullah’s death, reports of differences among Hakeemullah Mehsud, a more lethal militant leader; Wali-ur-Rehman, an important commander; and Maulvi Faqir, one of Baitullah’s deputies in Bajaur, surfaced, setting the stage for a confrontation that continues to this day, Ali said. LOTS more detail in full article. |
| Posted by:Glenmore |