The Ministry of Interior of Pakistan has added the extremist organization Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group to the list of banned organizations, taking the number of banned organizations in Pakistan to 81.
The Hafiz Gul Bahadur group has been added to the list of banned organizations on the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Necta) website on July 25 and a formal notification has been issued.
According to Pakistani authorities, the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group was involved in an armed attack on Bannu Cantonment in recent days.
According to the police, in the Bannu attack, the militants used a vehicle full of explosives and after that, the Gul Bahadur group militants were killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces.
According to the spokesman of the Pakistan Army, eight security forces personnel lost their lives in the Bannu operation and the militants were not allowed to reach their target.
Pakistan has repeatedly said in the past that militants of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, including the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, are based in Afghanistan and operate in Pakistan from there.
History of Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group
About a month before the 9/11 attacks in the United States, the United Nations was planning to deploy Manitzis on the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to stop the supply of weapons to the militants.
According to the organization called Critical Threat, at the same time, a local army of 4,000 volunteers was formed by a leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in North Waziristan to prevent the deployment of these monitors.
The patron of this army was Hafiz Gul Bahadur who became the center of attention for the first time. At that time, Hafat Gul Bahadur was of the opinion that deployment of monitors would interfere with the participation of Pashtuns in the ‘Jihad’ of Afghanistan.
This is the same Hafiz Gul Bahadur, against the extremists of his group, according to the Foreign Office of Pakistan, on March 18, 2024, the Pakistani army conducted an ‘intelligence-based’ operation in Afghanistan.
According to the Pakistani Foreign Office, militants of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group are involved in attacks in Pakistan.
Early life
Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a Madakhil sub-branch of the Atmanzai of the Wazir tribe of North Waziristan, hails from Madakhil village near the Afghan border in Pakistan and was an active member of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam student body in 2000.
According to the research based on the life of Hafiz Gul Bahadur published on the organization called Critical Threat, he was an influential head of the Atmanzai tribe and used to mediate between people in various matters.
He received his early education from a Deoband madrasa in Multan and also participated in the Afghan civil war in the 1990s, when the Afghan Taliban emerged in Afghanistan and formed the government in Afghanistan in 1994.
North Waziristan-based journalist Rasool Dawar, who has interviewed various TTP leaders, told Independent Urdu that Hafiz Gul Bahadur was rarely on the scene from the beginning and did not even talk to the media.
Rasool Dawar explains that ‘in 2008, Hafiz Gul Bahadur banned western media journalists from working in North Waziristan because he believed that journalists working in western media were spying under the guise of journalism.’
Maulvi Sadiq Noor, an associate of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, also banned music CD cassettes and barbers from shaving their beards in Miran Shah area of North Waziristan in 2006, while a ‘Sharia tax’ was also imposed on the people of the area.
Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s peace agreement with the government in 2006
The Pakistani government launched its first operation against militants in North Waziristan in 2004, and two years later in 2006, the government signed a peace accord with Hafiz Gul Bahadur. The main clause of the agreement was the withdrawal of foreign ‘jihadi fighters’ from North Waziristan.
It should be remembered that Arab fighters including al-Qaeda and Uzbek foreign fighters of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were living in Waziristan at that time. According to the organization called Critical Threat, he used to participate in ‘Jihad’ against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
According to a 2009 article written by Sadia Sulaiman about Hafiz Gul Bahadur in the American Jamestown Foundation magazine, ‘the then head of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Omar, had a hand in the peace agreement between the Pakistani government and Hafiz Gul Bahadur. ‘
According to this article, a letter written by Mullah Umar at that time told local and foreign fighters in Waziristan that ‘there should be no war against Pakistan because it is in the interest of America’.
At that time, some foreign fighters were angry with Hafiz Gul Bahadur for expelling the foreigners involved in the peace agreement, and according to the Jamestown article, the foreign fighters were of the opinion that ‘Hafiz Gul Bahadur and his colleagues supported the government. What is cheating on us’?
However, in July 2007, the peace accord collapsed and the Pakistani government and Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s group began to accuse each other, while Hafiz Gul Bahadur told his fighters to ‘launch a guerrilla war against the Pakistani security forces’.
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According to the Jamestown paper, a month later in August 2007, the Jirga of the then Orakzai Agency, which has now become a district, reconciled both sides and renewed the agreement and a ceasefire was declared.
Hafiz Gul Bahadur, Mullah Omar and the Haqqani Network
According to Rasool Dawar, a journalist from North Waziristan, Hafiz Gul Bahadur was considered close to Mullah Muhammad Omar, then head of the Afghan Taliban, and the Haqqani network, and was involved in expelling foreigners after the peace deal with the Pakistani government. was coming
According to Rasool Dawar, ‘Mullah Omar and the Haqqani network needed fighters to fight in Afghanistan and Waziristan was considered the base of these fighters. Thus, contrary to the peace agreement, foreign jihadi groups were being supported by Hafiz Gul Bahadur.
It was not until the agreement was broken that the various extremist organizations in Waziristan jointly announced the formation of a central organization called the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007 with Baitullah Mehsud as the head of the organization while Hafiz Gul. Bahadur was made Deputy Amir.
However, according to Times Online, Hafiz Gul Bahadur distanced himself from the TTP when Mullah Omar opposed it and said that ‘the fighters should focus on Afghanistan’ after the formation of the TTP.
An Afghan anti-aircraft gun is fired on the back of a truck as it passes in front of snow-capped mountains on the front line about 30 kilometers from Kabul on November 20, 1996. (Emmanuel Donde/AFP)
Differences between Baitullah Mehsud and Hafiz Gul Bahadur
According to the Jamestown article, in 2008, when the Pakistani army launched an operation against the Mehsud Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud and his associates began using the areas of North Waziristan to attack security forces, but Hafiz Gul Bahadur Mehsud Forbade the Taliban to do so.
After the differences, Hafat Gul Bahadur announced the formation of an organization called ‘Local Tehreek-e-Taliban’ and Hafiz Gul Bahadur became the head of the organization and Mullah Nazir (killed in an American drone strike in 2013) became his deputy and he was then called ‘Minister’. Also called ‘Alliance’ because it was a group comprising Taliban ministers.
Journalist Rasool Dawar says that an interesting situation occurred when in 2009 Hafiz Gul Bahadur, Baitullah Mehsud and Mullah Nazir forgot all their differences and announced an alliance called ‘Shura Ittehad Al-Mujahideen’ and pledged to work together. .
According to Rasool Dawar, ‘At that time after the formation of the alliance, they decided that they would focus all their efforts on Jihad in Afghanistan and this alliance was formed at the behest of Mullah Omar. At that time, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and his associate Mullah Nazir were against the Pakistani security forces or attacks in Pakistan and insisted on operations only in Afghanistan.
Withdrawal of the Afghan Taliban
The Pakistani government’s agreement with Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Mullah Nazir continued till 2009, but during that time, the Pakistani government intensified operations against militants in Waziristan, while the Pakistani government received support from Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s group.
Meanwhile, according to a report published on the US military website in 2012, some TTP fighters escaped to Afghanistan in 2010 and hid in the nearby Afghan provinces of Khost, Kunar, and the border, and from there they intensified in Pakistan. Began operations.
According to Rasool Dawar, the present head of TTP, Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, is trying hard to bring Hafiz Gul Bahadur group together with him, but he has not succeeded in this yet.
He said that ‘Hafiz Gul Bahadur and TTP have a good relationship but both groups carry out their actions separately and accept their responsibilities. Hafiz Gul Bahadur group’s influence is limited to North Waziristan, Bannu and Lakki Marwat.
It has been repeatedly said by the Pakistani government that the TTP militants are sitting in Afghanistan and are involved in extremist activities in Pakistan, and in the statement issued by the Pakistan Army on March 18, 2024, it has also been stated that those coming from Afghanistan The militants have been involved in the March 16 Waziristan security check post attack, last year’s cross-border attacks in Chitral, Balochistan’s Zhob military compound and other similar attacks.
While Pakistan has also demanded the extradition of Hafz Gul Bahadur from the Afghan government.
on the other hand Afghan Taliban has repeatedly denied the Pakistani government’s position that TTP militants have taken refuge in Afghanistan, but a few months ago, the US report on the security situation in Afghanistan stated that “TTP fighters are in Afghanistan.” are present and they also have the support of the Afghan Taliban.
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2024-08-01 16:43:07
