Terror group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has rejected allegations by Islamabad that the militant group uses Afghan territory to launch attacks against Pakistani security forces, claiming that the organisation’s military and administrative structures are based inside Pakistani territory.
However, he suggested that attacks on such targets could be considered in the future if the group concluded that Pakistan was using revenues from natural resources against it. Ghafran also addressed the possibility of negotiations with Islamabad, accusing Pakistan of repeatedly abandoning talks when they no longer served its interests. He also accused Pakistan’s intelligence services of involvement in targeted killings—an allegation he offered without publicly presented evidence. He rejected accusations that TTP members were motivated primarily by financial incentives, while repeating allegations concerning Pakistan’s past cooperation with the United States.
Because of what he described as its interpretation of Sharia, on attacks against economic infrastructure, Ghafran said TTP had so far refrained from systematically targeting gas pipelines and other economic institutions. He claimed the group maintains organisational structures across at least 39 districts of Pakistan, with only a limited number located close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
In a recent interview in Pashto, Mufti Ghafran, a senior member of TTP’s leadership, said Pakistan’s government and military have failed to provide “concrete evidence” that TTP fighters were crossing from Afghanistan to conduct attacks. Asked why TTP activity has historically been concentrated in Pashtun-majority areas rather than Punjab, Ghafran said the organisation’s operations had already extended to parts of Punjab, Sindh, Karachi, and Balochistan. He said TTP could expand its activities further if Pakistani military operations intensified. He said TTP remained open to what he termed meaningful negotiations conducted according to Islamic principles. On the disputed Durand Line, Ghafran said neither the Pashtun nor Baloch populations had accepted the frontier, describing it as an imposed arrangement. Ghafran portrayed TTP’s armed campaign as resistance against the Pakistani military and said the group would continue fighting.
