In Pakistan, a group formerly belonging to the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) has splintered off, forming a new group called Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA). The group cited the failure of the TTP to pursue the objectives of overthrowing the Pakistani government and establishing an Islamic state as the reason for the split.
A top TTP commander, Omar Khalid al Khorasani, who was running for the leadership of the TTP, was among those that defected from the network, which includes factions from the Mohmand, Bajaur, Khyber, and Arakzai tribal agencies, and the districts of Charsadda, Peshawar.
Maulana Qasim Khorasani, JuA’s emir, said that “the leadership of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan is a victim of narrow, personal objectives,” justifying the split.
The announcement of the formation of the new group was made over Twitter on the pages of Ihsanullah Ihsan, the former spokesman of the TTP, and Omar Khorasani, the “Personal Assistant” of Omar Khalid Khorasani, the former emir of the TTP in Mohmand.
JuA is the second group to splinter off from the TTP this year. Ahrar-ul-Hind formed out of the TTP in February.
Khadim Hussain, a Peshawar-based analyst, has found 3 patterns common to breakaway splinter groups in militant organizations.
First, the splinter is precipitated by a strategic and tactical retreat by the parent network. National security forces build pressure on a networks, Hussain expained, causing networks to break up into several groups. The cohesive network melts away, but when pressure dissipates, the network resurrects itself.
Second, the concept of “jihad” is interpreted variously among members of militant organizations. Most splinter groups justify their break along ideological lines.
Third, the spoils of war become a bone of contention among the members of the organizations.
JuA may be a reaction to state pressure in North Waziristan. JuA accused the TTP of failing the group’s main objective of imposing an ideal version of Sharia in Pakistan, and vowed to continue the struggle. The splinter may also be a result of relationships within a Pakistani war economy in which organizations finance themselves by kidnapping, extortion, gun-running, drug trafficking, car lifting and human trafficking. Some of the Pakistani network has allied itself with criminal syndicates more than others.
The TTP was established in 2007 with the goal of overthrowing the Pakistani government and establishing an Islamic state with sharia law. The groups former emir, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a 2009 US drone strike.
By Day Blakely Donaldson