Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Announces Parallel Govt

Islamabad: In Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, TTP has announced its government with a full Cabinet.

Directly challenging Pakistan’s sovereignty, TTP announced its new appointments dividing the outfit into various ministries, such as defence, judiciary, information, political affairs, economic affairs, education, a fatwa-issuing authority, intelligence, and a department for construction.

According to sources, the TTP has divided areas in its loose control or contested with Pakistan into two provinces. Last November, the TTP formally withdrew its ceasefire agreement with Pakistan.

Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan or, the  ‘Student Movement of Pakistan’, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

It is an alliance of militant networks formed in 2007 to unify opposition against the Pakistani military. TTP’s stated objectives are the expulsion of Islamabad’s influence in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan and the implementation of a strict interpretation of sharia throughout Pakistan.

TTP leaders also publicly say that the group seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate in Pakistan that would require the overthrow of the Pakistani Government.