Press TV
January 6, 2015
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group has released its first annual report, claiming its members have killed hundreds of people across the country during 2015.
The report, written in Urdu language, says the TTP carried out 73 targeted killings, 19 improvised explosive device (IED) explosions, a dozen ambush attacks, 10 raids, five assaults by individuals with explosives attached to them, 17 missile attacks. The militants also shot down two helicopters, it said.
The report contains a detailed list of attacks targeting Pakistani politicians, security and police forces.
The attacks were carried out across several Pakistani cities and the northwestern tribal areas from January 3 through December 26, 2015.
Commenting on the report, Amir Rana, the director of the independent Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), said despite the setbacks the miitant group has suffered, the TTP remains operational in Pakistan. “Its real operational strengths are its affiliates and support networks, which still exist inside Pakistan and … will take time to break.”
A recent research conducted by the PIPS shows the TTP and its affiliates have been responsible for 57 percent of the 625 reported attacks across the country in 2015.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a monitoring site, more than 27,000 civilians and security personnel have been killed in attacks across Pakistan over the past decade.
Pakistan has been facing security challenges since it joined an alliance with the US in the so-called war on terror in 2001.
Thousands of people have been killed over the past years as a result of a surge in violence in the country, with many of them members of the Shia community, which makes up almost one-third of the country’s population of 200 million.
The fight against militancy intensified following a massacre at a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar on December 16, 2014, when a group of TTP militants mounted an attack against Peshawar’s Army School, where more than 150 people, mostly children, were killed.
Following the Peshawar attack, Pakistan lifted a moratorium on the death penalty that had been in place for about six years. Since then, the Pakistani government has carried out over 300 executions.
Pakistani officials say about 3,500 militants have been killed since the launch of the operation.