Yesterday, the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) published a report, probing the security situation in Pakistan and specifically the number of suicide attacks in the country in 2023. According to this report, suicide attacks have increased by 93% in 2023, having caused more casualties. In 2022, which experienced a similar situation, witnessing an increase in these types of attacks, there were 15 suicide attacks, but in 2023, the number increased to 29. The report said that 48% of the dead and 58% of the wounded were Pakistan’s security forces.
This report and several other reports, including the report dated May 31, 2023, of the same organization, presented that after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, terrorist activities in Pakistan increased drastically. The May report showed a 73% increase in suicide attacks in this country, which continued until the end of 2023, marking a 93% increase in suicide attacks for Pakistan.
The surge in insecurity and suicide attacks in Pakistan has compelled the interim government of this country to exert pressure on Afghan refugees. The confiscation of the properties of these refugees by the Pakistani government and their mass deportation has been done under the pretext of fighting terrorism. The interim government of Pakistan, which has failed in its missions, including providing security, managing the economic situation, and holding timely national elections, has been widely campaigning against Afghan refugees for months to prepare the minds of the people for such an exodus.
However, Afghan refugees living and working in Pakistan, or those who use this country as a gateway to migrate to Western countries, do not pose any threat to Pakistan’s security. If an Afghan national is involved in such events, it is undoubtedly the product of the Pakistani government itself. This faction of people includes two categories: those who are educated in the religious schools of this country, including mine-making and suicide attack training, and those who were trained under the name of Taliban by the programs of Pakistan’s army and intelligence.
The suicide attack, which was initiated by the Taliban in Afghanistan and this group has an official suicide center, entered Afghanistan from Pakistan. The Taliban members who commit suicide or have committed suicide are mostly trained in making landmines and how to use them in religious schools in Pakistan. They have been brainwashed in these schools to prepare to blow up themselves and other innocent people. Even now, in the Taliban camps, they are under control day and night so that they can be killed when necessary and kill several of them with each of them. Therefore, the increase in suicide attacks and insecurity in Pakistan is the product of the country’s government policies.
It is explicit to all that the Afghan Tehreek-e-Taliban, the original supporters of the Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) was created, equipped, trained, and sent to the field by the government and the Pakistani army. When this group was defeated, it again sought refuge in the tribal areas of Pakistan. There, with the intervention and management of the government of Pakistan, it was revived and re-equipped and sent to the bloody field of Afghanistan. Now that an Afghan Taliban member has blown himself up in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, or TTP is using Afghan soil and Afghan Taliban forces to attack Pakistan’s security forces, it should make the policymakers and policy implementers of Pakistan think to change their approach towards the country and the region. The new report of PIPS also shows that most attacks took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, followed by Balochistan Province. In these two areas, the Afghan Taliban had a base and hideout before retaking control of Afghanistan. The Quetta council in the center of Balochistan and the Peshawar council in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were the main cores of the Taliban leadership.
If Pakistan continues with its current security policies, it will become more insecure, and further reports will continue to be about an increase in suicide and explosive attacks. It is not possible to fight terrorism with the policy of building madrasas outside the government’s control in tribal areas and supporting terrorism. These religious schools, which openly train suicide and non-suicide fighters, brainwash students, and teach the methods of making and using mines, should be monitored and controlled or completely closed. The government of Pakistan should end the business of terrorism and suicide. During the past two decades, when the Taliban trained and maintained their suicide squads in Pakistan, there was an occasional allegation about buying and selling suicide bombers among terrorist groups. Now the camps of the suicide forces are in Afghanistan, managed by the ministries of defense and interior of the Taliban, making it possible to purchase and sell these suicide forces. Therefore, as long as suicide schools operate freely in Pakistan, with suicide camps officially existing in Afghanistan, the sinister phenomenon of “suicide” will not disappear. This man-eating phenomenon attacks its surroundings and sometimes harms its owner as well.
The business of terror in our region has involved many countries and groups. Reports have been published about the recruitment of Afghan Taliban suicide bombers by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which, if accurate, will widen the scope of this business. The spread of the suicide business leaves adverse consequences for the businesspeople themselves. The arrival of suicide bombers in Islamabad and Tehran, which happened in 2023, could be one of the unwanted consequences of this trade.
