Pakistan Taliban ended ceasefire over feared split

By Aamir Latif

The Pakistani Taliban ended a 40-day ceasefire because it believed the security forces have been attempting to create divisions within their leadership, according to a Taliban commander.

Although the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a coalition of militant groups within Pakistan, officially said the deaths of members in security forces' custody was a major reason for the end of the ceasefire, Taliban sources said the step was taken to send a clear message to the government about trying to divide the leadership.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior Taliban commander told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the group's consultative council holds the country's secret services responsible for clashes between two Taliban groups in North and South Waziristan, near the northwestern Afghanistan border, that killed 46 fighters last week.

He accused the secret services of actively patronizing one particular group to create divisions within the TTP.

Though the commander did not name the group, it is believed it is the Sajna group named after the alias of its leader Khan Syed, a former lieutenant for the TTP’s founding chief Baitullah Mehsud. They were involved in deadly clashes with the Shaharyar Mehsud group for control of South Waziristan. Sajna had appeared a strong contender to be TTP chief after Hakeemullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in November 2013, but the TTP Shura elected the hardline Maulvi Fazlullah as its new chief.

A Shaharyar group spokesperson told media last week that it would not allow Sajna to achieve its alleged goal of seizing the leadership of TTP's South Waziristan chapter unless approved by Fazlullah.

“The Shura (consultative council) sees the whole exercise patronized by the army, as a bid to create division within the Taliban ranks in the name of peace talks, and ceasefire,” he said. Hamid Mir, an Islamabad-based defense and security analyst, also believes that the Taliban made the decision in an attempt to preserve its unity.

“The TTP Shura believes that the country’s security establishment wants to replace Maulvi Fazlullah by Khan Syed Sajna, who according to them (the security establishment) is not that hardline,” said Mir.

Mir said the divisions began when the former acting chief of the TTP Ismatullah Shaheen Bhittani was killed in February.

"Bhittani was the man who as acting Emir (chief) vetoed the appointment of Sajna as new TTP chief and threw his weight in favor of Maulvi Fazlullah, which was totally unexpected not only for Sajna group but for Pakistan's security establishment as well,” he said.

Mir said the Taliban think Bhittani, and various other TTP commanders, have been killed by the Sajna group in collaboration with the security forces.