The TTP was founded in December 2007 by a shura council of 40 Taliban leaders in an effort to unify militant groups active in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPP).[1] The name Tehrik-i-Taliban (literally, "Student Movement") had been used as early as 1998 in Pakistan, but was unrelated to TTP.[2] Since the creation of the militant organization, it has become an adaptive and resourceful network of self-interested groups united by similar causes. The TTP is made up of various factions and groups, the three most powerful being the Mehsud Group, the Muqami Taliban and the Punjabi Taliban. Each group is self-financed, but TTP networking is supported by protection money, kidnapping, and donations from sympathizers both in and outside of Pakistan.[3]
In August 2009, Baitullah Mehsud (leader of the largest TTP faction) was killed in a drone attack.[4] His cousin, Hakimullah Mehsud, then assumed leadership, and TTP attacks grew in severity, including a January 2010 suicide bombing at a CIA outpost in Afghanistan (retaliation for the death of Baitullah Mehsud) and May 2010 attacks on mosques in Lahore that killed over 80 Ahmadi Muslims.[5] The TTP is also alleged to have organized the bomb plot in Times Square that same year.[6] Following Hakimullah Mehsud’s death (also by drone attack) in 2013, hard-liner Mullah Fazlullah – who ordered the assassination attempt of Malala Yousafzai – was named as his replacement.[7] Failed peace negotiations in early 2014 between the TTP and the Pakistani government were followed by the December 2014 massacre at a school in Peshawar in which almost all of the victims were children.[8] View full narrative