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PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s Peshawar was as soon as referred to as ‘town of flowers’, surrounded by orchards of pear, quince and pomegranate bushes. It was a buying and selling metropolis, located on the gates of a key mountain valley connecting South and Central Asia.
However for the previous 4 a long time, it has borne the brunt of rising militancy within the area, fuelled by the conflicts in neighbouring Afghanistan and the geopolitical video games of nice powers.
On Tuesday, town with a inhabitants of about 2 million was reeling after one in every of Pakistan’s most devastating militant assaults in years.
A day earlier, a suicide bomber unleashed a blast in a mosque inside town’s major police compound, killing no less than 100 individuals and wounding no less than 225, principally police.
Analysts say the carnage is the legacy of a long time of flawed insurance policies by Pakistan and the US.
“What you sow, so shall you reap,” mentioned Abdullah Khan, a senior safety analyst.
Peshawar was a peaceable place, he mentioned, till the early Eighties when Pakistan’s then-dictator Ziaul Haq determined to turn into a part of Washington’s chilly battle with Moscow, becoming a member of the struggle towards the 1979 Soviet invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan.
Peshawar — lower than 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Afghan border — grew to become the middle the place the American CIA and Pakistani navy helped practice, arm and fund the Afghan mujahedeen preventing the Soviets.
The town was flooded by weapons and fighters, a lot of them hard-line Islamic militants, in addition to with a whole bunch of 1000’s of Afghan refugees.
Arab militants had been additionally drawn there by the struggle towards the Soviets, together with the scion of a rich Saudi household, Osama bin Laden. It was in Peshawar that bin Laden based al-Qaida within the late Eighties, becoming a member of forces with veteran Egyptian militant Ayman al-Zawahri.
The Soviets lastly withdrew in defeat from Afghanistan in 1989. However the legacy of militancy and armed resistance that the US and Pakistan fuelled towards them remained.
“After the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan in Eighties, People deserted mujahedeen, People even deserted us, and since then we’re paying a worth for it,” mentioned Mahmood Shah, a former Pakistani military brigadier and a senior safety analyst.
The mujahedeen plunged Afghanistan into civil battle in a bloody struggle for energy. In the meantime, in Peshawar and one other Pakistani metropolis, Quetta, the Afghan Taliban started to organise, with backing from the Pakistani authorities. Ultimately, the Taliban took energy in Afghanistan within the late Nineties, ruling till they had been ousted by the 2001 American-led invasion following al-Qaida’s 9/11 assaults within the US.
Throughout the practically 20-year US battle towards the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, militant teams blossomed within the tribal areas of Pakistan alongside the border and round Peshawar.
Just like the Taliban, they discovered root among the many ethnic Pashtuns who make up a majority within the area and within the metropolis.
Some teams had been inspired by the Pakistani intelligence companies. However others turned their weapons towards the federal government, angered by heavy safety crackdowns and by frequent US airstrikes within the border area concentrating on al-Qaida and different militants.
Chief among the many anti-government teams was the Pakistani Taliban, or Tahreek-e Taliban-Pakistani, or TTP. Within the late 2000s and early 2010s, it waged a brutal marketing campaign of violence across the nation.
Peshawar was scene of one of many bloodiest TTP assaults in 2014, on an army-run public faculty that killed practically 150 individuals, most of them schoolboys.
Peshawar’s location has for hundreds of years made it a key juncture between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
One of many oldest cities in Asia, it stands on the entrance to the Khyber Move, the principle route between the 2 areas.
That was a supply of its prosperity in commerce and put it on the trail of armies going each instructions, from Moghul emperors to British imperialists.
A heavy navy offensive largely put down the TTP for a number of years and the federal government and the militants finally reached an uneasy truce. Peshawar got here underneath heavy safety management, with checkpoints dotting the principle roads, and a heavy presence of police and paramilitary troops.
TTP assaults, nevertheless, have grown as soon as extra because the Afghan Taliban returned to energy in Kabul in August 2021 amid the US and NATO withdrawal from that nation.
The Pakistani Taliban are distinct from however allied to the Afghan group, and Pakistani officers usually accuse the Afghan Taliban of giving the TTP free rein to function from Afghan territory.
Forward of Monday’s suicide bombing, Peshawar had seen growing small-scale assaults concentrating on police. In one other spillover from Afghanistan’s battle, the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group attacked Peshawar’s major Shiite mosque in March 2022, killing greater than 60 individuals.
Shah, the previous officer, warned that extra TTP assaults might comply with and mentioned that Pakistan wants to interact the Afghan Taliban and stress them to both evict the TTP or guarantee it does not launch assaults from Afghan territory.
“If we’re to have peace in Pakistan, we must always discuss to TTP from the place of energy with assist from the Afghan Taliban,” he mentioned. “That is the most effective and viable resolution to keep away from extra violence.”
However for the previous 4 a long time, it has borne the brunt of rising militancy within the area, fuelled by the conflicts in neighbouring Afghanistan and the geopolitical video games of nice powers.
On Tuesday, town with a inhabitants of about 2 million was reeling after one in every of Pakistan’s most devastating militant assaults in years.
A day earlier, a suicide bomber unleashed a blast in a mosque inside town’s major police compound, killing no less than 100 individuals and wounding no less than 225, principally police.
Analysts say the carnage is the legacy of a long time of flawed insurance policies by Pakistan and the US.
“What you sow, so shall you reap,” mentioned Abdullah Khan, a senior safety analyst.
Peshawar was a peaceable place, he mentioned, till the early Eighties when Pakistan’s then-dictator Ziaul Haq determined to turn into a part of Washington’s chilly battle with Moscow, becoming a member of the struggle towards the 1979 Soviet invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan.
Peshawar — lower than 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Afghan border — grew to become the middle the place the American CIA and Pakistani navy helped practice, arm and fund the Afghan mujahedeen preventing the Soviets.
The town was flooded by weapons and fighters, a lot of them hard-line Islamic militants, in addition to with a whole bunch of 1000’s of Afghan refugees.
Arab militants had been additionally drawn there by the struggle towards the Soviets, together with the scion of a rich Saudi household, Osama bin Laden. It was in Peshawar that bin Laden based al-Qaida within the late Eighties, becoming a member of forces with veteran Egyptian militant Ayman al-Zawahri.
The Soviets lastly withdrew in defeat from Afghanistan in 1989. However the legacy of militancy and armed resistance that the US and Pakistan fuelled towards them remained.
“After the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan in Eighties, People deserted mujahedeen, People even deserted us, and since then we’re paying a worth for it,” mentioned Mahmood Shah, a former Pakistani military brigadier and a senior safety analyst.
The mujahedeen plunged Afghanistan into civil battle in a bloody struggle for energy. In the meantime, in Peshawar and one other Pakistani metropolis, Quetta, the Afghan Taliban started to organise, with backing from the Pakistani authorities. Ultimately, the Taliban took energy in Afghanistan within the late Nineties, ruling till they had been ousted by the 2001 American-led invasion following al-Qaida’s 9/11 assaults within the US.
Throughout the practically 20-year US battle towards the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, militant teams blossomed within the tribal areas of Pakistan alongside the border and round Peshawar.
Just like the Taliban, they discovered root among the many ethnic Pashtuns who make up a majority within the area and within the metropolis.
Some teams had been inspired by the Pakistani intelligence companies. However others turned their weapons towards the federal government, angered by heavy safety crackdowns and by frequent US airstrikes within the border area concentrating on al-Qaida and different militants.
Chief among the many anti-government teams was the Pakistani Taliban, or Tahreek-e Taliban-Pakistani, or TTP. Within the late 2000s and early 2010s, it waged a brutal marketing campaign of violence across the nation.
Peshawar was scene of one of many bloodiest TTP assaults in 2014, on an army-run public faculty that killed practically 150 individuals, most of them schoolboys.
Peshawar’s location has for hundreds of years made it a key juncture between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
One of many oldest cities in Asia, it stands on the entrance to the Khyber Move, the principle route between the 2 areas.
That was a supply of its prosperity in commerce and put it on the trail of armies going each instructions, from Moghul emperors to British imperialists.
A heavy navy offensive largely put down the TTP for a number of years and the federal government and the militants finally reached an uneasy truce. Peshawar got here underneath heavy safety management, with checkpoints dotting the principle roads, and a heavy presence of police and paramilitary troops.
TTP assaults, nevertheless, have grown as soon as extra because the Afghan Taliban returned to energy in Kabul in August 2021 amid the US and NATO withdrawal from that nation.
The Pakistani Taliban are distinct from however allied to the Afghan group, and Pakistani officers usually accuse the Afghan Taliban of giving the TTP free rein to function from Afghan territory.
Forward of Monday’s suicide bombing, Peshawar had seen growing small-scale assaults concentrating on police. In one other spillover from Afghanistan’s battle, the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group attacked Peshawar’s major Shiite mosque in March 2022, killing greater than 60 individuals.
Shah, the previous officer, warned that extra TTP assaults might comply with and mentioned that Pakistan wants to interact the Afghan Taliban and stress them to both evict the TTP or guarantee it does not launch assaults from Afghan territory.
“If we’re to have peace in Pakistan, we must always discuss to TTP from the place of energy with assist from the Afghan Taliban,” he mentioned. “That is the most effective and viable resolution to keep away from extra violence.”
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