Pakistan has officially signed the ‘Bajaur Accord’ with Taliban operating in the northwestern Tribal agency. The Taliban promised to prevent ‘foreign fighters’ from settling and stop cross border attacks into Afghanistan in exchange for freedom from attack and arrest by the Pakistani security forces. This is the third official peace agreement Pakistan has signed with the Taliban since 2005. And like the last two, the al Qaeda affiliated Taliban in Bajaur will not honor their agreement. Bajaur serves as an al Qaeda command and control center and borders Kunar province, the most violent in Afghanistan. The Taliban and al Qaeda have staged attacks into Kunar, Nangahar, and even suicide strikes into Kabul from this agency. On the same day the agreement was signed, the local chapter of the Bajaur Taliban, known as the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (the TNSM, or Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad’s Sharia Law), threatened to conduct a suicide campaign against the Pakistani government if the group’s leader, Sufi Mohammed, was not released from custody. The TNSM is one of the most violent and extreme Islamist groups in all of Pakistan. For an overview of the deteriorating situation in Bajaur and the greater Northwest Frontier Province, check out my article in this week’s issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
