What does the launch of a Taliban group focussed on Kashmir mean?

A new Islamist group has thrown its hat into the Kashmir ring, vowing to launch an armed struggle against both India and Pakistan for Kashmir’s independence. The group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Kashmir (TTK), in its first statement has condemned military actions by both countries and said that its fight would be based on Islamic principles and that it would target “occupying forces” only within Kashmir.

From the face of it, the group wants to be seen as a mirror image of Tehreek-e-Taliban, Pakistan (TTP). It was formed in 2007 in response to Pakistani military’s operations in the FATA region. Its stated objective is to overthrow the elected government in Pakistan and run it on the principles of Islamic Emirate.

The new development is crucial because the TTP has made inroads into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Recently, in a shootout in POK, 4 TTP militants and 2 Pakistani police officers were killed. The shootout took place in POK’s Rawalkot district after the Pakistani security forces launched an operation following a tip-off about the presence of TTP militants. The clashes with TTP militants are among several that have taken place in the region over the past few months.

In the murky world of Islamist terror, it is difficult to understand several equations. On one hand, there is a palpable tension between the Taliban (in Afghanistan) and Pakistan. It gets precipitated after the Pakistani security forces target TTP – someone with which the Taliban in Afghanistan feels a kinship because of shared Islamic values. In response to the killing of a senior TTP leader Ustad Qureshi by Pakistani forces in October last year, the TTP conducted several raids on Pakistani forces, killing dozens. The Pakistan Air Force then bombarded a position in Afghanistan, claiming it to be a TTP training facility. It further made created tension between Taliban and Pakistan. Around the same time a UN report stated that a mysterious al-Qaeda operative Abu Ikhlas-al Masri was collaborating with another Islamist group in providing suicide bomber training to TTP cadres. It cautioned that the “TTP could transform into an umbrella organization for other terrorist groups. In the medium term, a potential merger of TTP and AQIS [Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent] could escalate the threat against Pakistan, and eventually India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.”

At the same time, other things are happening, too. The US government has lifted its hefty bounty from senior members of the Haqqani network, especially on its key leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is also Afghanistan’s interior minister. In 2021, after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Indian intelligence assets had reported a meeting between Haqqani and an old Kashmir hand among the Jihadis, a man called Nasrullah Mansoor Langrial. He is also believed to have met Ibrahim Athar, one of Masood Azhar’s brother and one of the hijackers of the IC-814 plane.

It is cause for alarm because highly motivated terrorists trained in the best facilities like Afghanistan’s Sangin camp have the wherewithal to not only infiltrate but also reach Kashmir without detection with the help of a string of Kashmiri overground workers. It could be become a major challenge for Indian security forces in the coming weeks, especially if the group is keen to mark its presence in Kashmir Valley.

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