South Waziristan Agency, Oct 14: The official spokesman of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Shahid Ullah Shahid, has come up publicly with his affiliation to IS here on Tuesday. In this respect he posted a pamphlet to few media men showing his loyalty to Abu-Bakar Baghdadi, FRC has learnt.
“I besides five other important commanders of TTP have formally declared our allegiance to Abu-Bakar Baghdadi, the chief of IS”, Shahid Ullah Shahid has said in the statement.
The other commanders included, Gul Zaman, Saeed Khan, Mufti Hassan, Khalid Mansoor and Daulat Khan.
The assertion, nevertheless, didn’t say much about the mentioned commanders’ affiliation with their parent organization TTP. Though according to analysts the development is of profound consequences for TTP and its leadership.
“This declaration demonstrates that ‘IS’ is now working its path into the tribal belt of Pakistan, which was previously assumed to be hosting Al-Qaida and foreign militants”, Mansoor Khan Mehsud, Director Research FRC, said.
It is to mention here that Al-Qaida and the recently emerged ‘IS’ group in Pakistan are having differences at ideological lines. “The followers of Al-Qaida shows their adherence to the commandments of supreme commander of Afghan Taliban Mullah Mohammad Omer while the latter follows the orders of Abu-Bakar Baghdadi”, added further by Mr. Mehsud.
This growth will also severely affect the Pakistani Taliban movement TTP as its’ establishment would be now divided at philosophical lines.
Abu Bakar Baghdadi has spent, according to reports, a considerable time in the twin agencies of Waziristan, North and South Waziristan, during an era of US led War on Terror in Afghanistan.
A few weeks back IS debut in Pakistan was marked with the figure of a twelve page pamphlet that was given out in the suburban areas of Peshawar.
There were reports that TTP commander Fazal Ullah has also demonstrated his loyalty to Abu Bakar Baghdadi but were afterwards refuted by the commander himself as “ Our sympathies are with ‘IS’ but the reports showing my loyalty with it are unfounded”.
The outfit TTP has been under the smashes of military artillery in the ongoing military operation Zarb e Azab in North Waziristan Agency. The new growth will further shake up the remnant setup of TTP and probably will prove fateful for the very being of the system.
