Collateral damage: An Afghan man removing debris from a house which was damaged in an airstrike in Kabul. — AFP
The leader of the Pakistani Taliban appeared in a video yesterday to prove he is still alive, a week after an apparent attempt to assassinate him with an airstrike in Afghanistan provoked the most serious clash between the neighbours in decades.
The airstrike on Oct 9 hit an armoured Toyota Land Cruiser believed to be carrying Noor Wali Mehsud in the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to Pakistani security officials.
After days of deadly violence, an uneasy ceasefire took hold on Wednesday. But with confirmation that Mehsud is still alive, Pakistan’s main grievance against its neighbour endures: Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of sheltering a leader and his senior lieutenants it blames for directing near-daily attacks in Pakistan.
Mehsud said in the video that he was appearing to refute reports of his death. Pakistani security officials and fighters had previously assessed that he had probably survived.
“Jihad brings nations freedom and dignity; otherwise they remain slaves,” Mehsud said.
Pakistan has not officially claimed responsibility for the airstrike, the first in Kabul since the successful 2022 US targeting of Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The Afghan Taliban denies harbouring Pakistani fighters and, in turn, accuses Islamabad of sheltering the local branch of the Islamic State group, their main armed rival.
Mehsud, in the video, said he was in Pakistan, but his location could not be verified.
Mehsud took over the leadership of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2018 after his three predecessors were killed by US drone strikes.
By then, Pakistani army operations had largely driven the group out of their former strongholds and into Afghanistan.
He has revived the group, transformed its strategy and united warring factions, analysts say.
Trained as a religious scholar, he also took up an ideological battle.
The Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Afghanistan gave the TTP freer movement and greater access to weapons, Islamabad says, and attacks inside Pakistan escalated – especially in the northwest bordering Afghanistan.
In the past, the TTP struck civilian targets, like mosques and markets, killing more than 130 children in a 2014 school assault.
Mehsud, concerned these attacks caused public revulsion in Pakistan, directed the group to target only military and police.
In a rare video speech released earlier this year, he portrayed Pakistan’s army as anti-Islam, criticised its role in politics, and said the generals had “hijacked the people of Pakistan for the last 78 years”.
Pakistan’s military says that the TTP has perverted religion and that it is supported by the country’s adversary, India, a charge that New Delhi denies. — Reuters
