TTP Suicide Blast Kills 17 at Pakistan Police Station
Is Pakistan's TTP crisis a failure of military strategy or is Afghanistan stonewalling real progress?
Above: Police personnel cordon off a street following a suicide bombing during a protest in Pakistan's Swat district on Aug. 2. Image credit: Abdullah Shereen/AFP/Getty Images
The Spin
Pro-Afghanistan narrative
Despite nearly a dozen major operations over two decades, the TTP keeps adapting and striking. Pakistan's core contradiction is that its own decades of Taliban support created the sanctuary it now can't dismantle. Bombing Afghanistan doesn't solve Swat — only sustained political engagement with Pashtun communities does, and Islamabad keeps avoiding it.
Pro-Pakistan narrative
There have been 28 suicide attacks from Afghan-based militants since January, carried out by Afghan nationals or people connected to Afghan security forces. The Taliban won't crack down on TTP because of ideological ties and fear of losing fighters to the Islamic State group. Pakistan can't secure Swat while its neighbor actively shelters the people killing Pakistanis.