Pakistan Faces Strategic Crossroads as TTP Threat Grows
DID Press: Tahrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has become a powerful symbol of Islamabad’s long-standing contradictory regional policies. Once seen as a controllable proxy to expand regional influence, the group has evolved into a serious internal threat, turning Pakistan’s own strategy into a self-made trap.
The collapse of recent Istanbul talks between Kabul and Islamabad represents more than a failed diplomatic engagement—it reflects the depth of a structural crisis now defining bilateral relations. When both sides formally declared the negotiations deadlocked last Friday and accused each other of breaching commitments, it underscored years of Pakistan’s strategic contradictions.
At the heart of the current tensions lies the TTP issue, now viewed in Islamabad as an existential challenge to national security. The group’s escalating attacks on state institutions have forced Pakistan’s political and military elite to confront a reality reminiscent of Afghanistan two decades ago—when the Taliban’s return to power seemed impossible.
Pakistan’s strategists now face a historic dilemma: underestimating the TTP could lead to an unmanageable crisis, while an overreaction risks further destabilization. Both paths leave Islamabad trapped in a strategic bind demanding extraordinary precision and restraint.
Ironically, the TTP itself is the outcome of Pakistan’s own past policy contradictions. What began as a geopolitical instrument has become a destabilizing force, pushing relations with Kabul toward potential confrontation. While Islamabad highlights issues like Afghan refugees and border tensions, analysts say these are secondary compared to the ideological and regional implications of the TTP’s rise in a nuclear-armed state.
Managing this crisis has moved beyond Pakistan’s domestic domain, emerging as a key ideological and security fault line in the wider region. The failure of the Istanbul talks marks only the beginning of a new era of uncertainty in Pakistan–Afghanistan relations.
By Rahmatullah Enayati