Interview

Karachi: "The Pakistani Taliban are attacking the police first"

A Pakistani army soldier stands guard on the roof of the police headquarters, a day after the Taliban attack, in Karachi this Saturday, February 18, 2023. AP - Ikram Suri

Text by: Sylvie Noël Follow

4 mins

In Pakistan, the day after the spectacular attack on the imposing Karachi police compound, the Pakistani Taliban are threatening new attacks on the police.

Interview with Laurent Gayer, research director at CERI Sciences Po and specialist in Pakistan, about the challenges of this resurgence of violence.

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RFI: Why did the Pakistani Taliban who carried out a vast operation on Friday, February 17, against the Karachi police center, ask the police, in their press release, to stay away from the war that they lead against the army?

Laurent Gayer:

First of all, it should be noted that Friday's attack was particularly spectacular.

It was not just a police station that was targeted, it was the police headquarters in Karachi that was stormed.

It was a real siege that lasted several hours.

This attack sends shockwaves through Pakistan.

Since November, when they broke the negotiations, the ceasefire with the Pakistani authorities, the Pakistani Taliban have been attacking the police as a priority, in the hope of demoralizing them and dissociating them from the armed forces. .

Since they took up arms again at the end of 2022, it is the police who have been on the front line during operations against the Taliban.

And so, the idea is to wage a real war of attrition in the

It should be remembered that before this spectacular attack, there had already been a bloody attack in Peshawar on January 30th.

This time again, it was the police who had been targeted.

This attack had targeted a mosque very frequented by the police and had resulted in a hundred deaths.

The impact was very strong on the Peshawar police.

The attack provoked demonstrations of protest, which is an extremely rare phenomenon in Pakistan, where the police are not used to demonstrating or chanting slogans hostile to the authorities.

So, we feel an anger rising in particular against the wait-and-see attitude of the authorities, with the feeling among the police that the authorities have favored the return of the Taliban.

In their press release, the Pakistani Taliban denounce extrajudicial executions.

What about

It is an ancient practice, especially in Karachi.

Around 2012-2013, before relative calm returned to the city, there had already been a Taliban offensive.

At the time, a hundred police officers had been killed and already, at the time, one of the grievances of the Taliban of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the movement of the Pakistani Taliban, was to denounce these practices, in l occurrence of summary executions disguised as an armed confrontation which the police are accustomed to.

But it should be emphasized that in fact the police outsource

” of repression to the army.

Does the return to power of the Afghan Taliban play a role in the resurgence of violence in Pakistan?

Yes, absolutely.

Once again, the Pakistani strategy has failed.

When the Taliban regained power in Kabul in August 2021, the calculation of the Pakistani army, the powerful intelligence services, was to negotiate with the Afghan Taliban the end of the sanctuaries in eastern Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan .

The hope was that the new authorities in Kabul would crack down on their Pakistani TTP comrades.

It has not happened.

On the contrary, the Kabul authorities supported their former Pakistani comrades.

And then, the few months of truce favored the Pakistani Taliban who were thus able to rearm, reorganize, and also reestablish themselves not only in the northeast, but also probably in the big Pakistani cities.

What happened

Does the political and economic crisis that Pakistan is going through handicap the power in its capacity to react?

Absolutely.

This is an essential contextual element: the Taliban, who have a clear strategy, have decided to take advantage of the country's vulnerabilities, both politically and economically.

Pakistan is currently a deeply divided country.

This is the big difference with the operation which resulted in a return to order in Karachi in 2012-2013.

At the time, there was consensus among all political forces across the Pakistani political spectrum.

This is no longer the case today.

The political scene is deeply divided and Pakistan is facing, as you remember, a very serious economic crisis, with a risk of payment default.

So Pakistan does not have the financial means to

► To read also:

• Pakistan: a police compound in Karachi stormed by the Pakistani Taliban

• Pakistan: for the police, the Peshawar attack was committed in retaliation for his actions

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• Pakistan

• Taliban

• Terrorism

• Afghanistan