A spokesperson of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Shahidullah Shahid, confirmed that the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) provided the manpower for the attack at Karachi Airport on Sunday night, and it was a joint action of the Taliban and IMU.
TTP and IMU statements confirm that militants living in tribal areas of Pakistan have enough potential to strike anywhere they wish within Pakistan or even abroad, because they have links with other militant groups in Central Asia, China, and the Middle East. The Pakistan-based jihadists of Central Asian origin are of increasing concern to countries including China, Russia, and Turkey.
The Chinese in particular are worried about Turkic militants carrying out attacks in western China, which has a large Muslim population. There are fears among security observers in Pakistan that a successful attack on the Karachi airport has given the militants so much confidence and experience that they will plan to strike any small airport in the northwestern province of Xinjiang where they are trying to establish Islamic rule for the Uyghur ethnic group.
From 1995 to 1997, the struggle in Xinjiang reached its peak, with increasingly frequent attacks by militants in Xinjiang. This was happening at the same time when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. China formed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) enlisting Central Asian assistance in cracking down on Uighur militants, and many of them fled China. They developed contacts with Central Asian militants with the alleged support of Afghan Taliban leadership that was providing them support for installing an Islamic government in Muslims areas of China. Some of them reached tribal areas of Pakistan. Afghanistan under the Taliban rule became part of a global militancy school supported by al Qaeda. So the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) also reached Afghanistan when it was pushed out by the Uzbekistan government. Meanwhile, a popular leader of the Uighur militants, Hasan Mahsum, established ETIM in 1998 in Kabul and began recruiting and training Uighur militants while expanding ties with the emerging Jihad movement in the region, dropping the “East” from its name to reflect these deepening ties.
With the US attack on Afghanistan in October 2001, TIM was routed, and its remnants fled to Central Asia and Pakistan. In 2005, there were mixings of a new Uighur Islamist militant group, the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) that established a robust presence on the Internet, posting histories of the Uighur/Turkistan people in western China and Central Asia and inspirational videos featuring Hasan Mahsum. In 2006, a new video surfaced calling for Jihad in Xinjiang, and later that year there were reports that remnants of ETIM had begun reforming and moving back into far western Xinjiang from Pakistan after getting training and resources from Pakistani Taliban.
Security observers believe that Chinese militants get support, training, and inspiration from TTP and live in tribal areas of Pakistan. They have transnational linkages in Turkistan, Uzbekistan, parts of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Observers claim that Chinese intelligence agencies had credible information in the past that Afghan, Middle Eastern and Central Asian migrants, and tourists were spotted carrying out surveillance of schools, hotels, and government buildings in Beijing and Shanghai which indicates that global Jihad is supporting Jihad against China. The alleged activities seem to fit a pattern within the international Jihadist movement of paying more attention to China.
Islamists are now giving special attention to destabilize China with the launch of the SCO which is a body harming their interests in entire Central Asia, with expanded Chinese involvement in Africa and its continued support for Pakistan’s government. China has taken issue over the presence of anti-China militants in tribal areas of Pakistan with the aid of the Pakistan government in the past, but no action was taken to eliminate these militants. The United States, European Union, and now Russia have been crying that tribal areas of Pakistan are heavens for top world terrorist groups that are directly or indirectly linked with al-Qaeeda. Iran has been claiming that militants are going to Syria, Iraq, and Egypt from Pakistan to fight with along with Salafis (Tafrikis) but every government of Pakistan had been denying these allegations. Political observers claim that this denial of all previous and now sitting government of Pakistan was due to intense pressure of religious groups, religo-political parties, and civil and military bureaucracy, or the so-called establishment, because these militants have been strategic assets of the Pakistani establishment.
Direct confrontation of TTP with the Pakistan Army provided a chance for the political government to eliminate these militants by taking ground action against them in tribal areas of Pakistan, but the sitting government’s Prime Minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif, is known for his tilt towards right-wing activities and its close relations with the Saudi Arabian Royal family that is allegedly supporting Salafis in Tafrikis in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Pakistan against Shia elements.
Another factor for dropping the option of full-fledged ground action against militants in tribal areas is political pressure from Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) which is the second biggest opposition in parliament and rules the province of Khyber Pakhtun Khawa (KPK) – the province bordering Afghanistan – and is a known hub for militants. Political observers claim that TTP helped PTI to win the 2013 elections, because its Chief Imran Khan is a strong supporter of TTP and strong criticizer of the western world. Imran Khan virtually stopped NATO supplies from entering Pakistan, because he believes that US drone strikes are killing innocent people in tribal areas. Whenever the Pakistan Army decided to initiate action against militants in tribal areas, Imran Khan strongly objected and compelled the government to drop the idea of action against militants in tribal areas. He believes that militants are sons of the soil, and they should not be killed but rather peace talks should be initiated with them and government should provide them with the chance to leave militancy and join the mainstream. He never accepted allegations that Uzbeks, Chechens, Chinese, and Arabs are living in and operating from tribal areas with the support of TTP. Peace talks were initiated with TTP on his demand, but talks failed to bring results.
Now it looks like the morale of militants is very high, but the Pakistan Air force is striking their hideouts, and US drones are following them. There are fears that they may move out of tribal areas to avoid losses, and then may move to Xinjiang by crossing the Pak-Afghan border or to Tajikistan by crossing through the Nooristan/Kunar route, as Nooristan is under the virtual control of the Chief of TTP, Mullah Fazlullah, who is living in Kunar Afghanistan. There are fears among security analysts that they will try something big if they reach Xinjiang, because IMU is dead set against China for SCO formation that is stopping it from wreaking havoc in the Central Asian Ground – the dream of IMU, which is to establish a Turkman Islamic region covering entire Central Asia and ending at the Indus River in Pakistan.
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