Tides Turn Against the Pakistani Taliban: The Killing of Iqbal Bali

Tides Turn Against the Pakistani Taliban: The Killing of Iqbal Bali

Since the fall of Kabul and the return of the Afghan Taliban to power in August 2021, Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK) Province has faced a resurgence of Islamist terrorism. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or “Pakistani Taliban,” has perpetrated scores of terrorist attacks across KPK Province. The most lethal attack was the January 30 suicide bombing of a mosque inside the provincial police compound in Peshawar, which killed 72 and injured 150 police officers and civilians during Friday prayers (Geo TV, January 30).

The KPK police have struggled to turn the tide against the TTP, but they managed to kill Iqbal (alias “Bali”) in a gun battle in the Dera Ismail Khan District of southern KPK. The encounter between police and Iqbal (along with his fellow militants) took place in the early morning hours of May 3 in the Dirdoni area of Ghulam Khan Tehsil (an administrative division) of Dera Ismail Khan District. Iqbal and two of his accomplices were killed, while two others received injuries, to include the area’s subdivisional police officer. The timing of Iqbal’s killing was relevant, as it boosted the morale of Pakistan’s security forces on the same day that six soldiers were killed by militants in the North Waziristan District of KPK Province (ANI News, May 5).

Iqbal masterminded more than 26 deadly terrorist attacks in Pakistan and was a key commander of TTP, having a bounty on his head of 10.5 million rupees (around $37,000) (Bol News, May 4). Before his death, he was wanted in both Punjab and KPK provinces for the terrorist attacks that he organized during his 15-year “career” as a jihadist.

Who Was Iqbal Bali?

Not much is known about Iqbal, save that he hailed from Dera Ismail Khan District. He established the Khiyara Group of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and began conducting attacks in the southern districts of the KPK as well as neighboring districts in Punjab Province when he was in his early 30s (News International, May 5). Although he later joined the TTP, he continued to remain associated with the LeJ (Dawn, May 5). The LeJ has close links with the TTP and al-Qaeda, and at times has worked in tandem with both of them.

Both the LeJ and TTP maintain a strong liaison with the Afghan Taliban, whose territory often provided a safe haven for their militants. As such, Iqbal—who has served as a commander for both the LeJ and TTP—also maintained strong connections with the Afghan Taliban. [1]

According to KPK police, Iqbal was involved in high-profile attacks in not only KPK Province but also Punjab. There Iqbal masterminded the attack on a convoy of Sri Lankan cricket team players in 2009, which killed six police officers and injured several players on the team. In addition, he orchestrated a separate attack in the Multan District of Punjab (Express Tribune, May 4). The government of Punjab subsequently announced a bounty of 2.5 million rupees ($8,800) for any information leading to his arrest.

Apart from these attacks, Iqbal was also wanted for targeted killings and kidnappings that occurred within Dera Ismail Khan District. Additionally, he was wanted by Multan police in five other cases, including a high-profile suicide attack on the District Headquarters Hospital that killed several people, including senior police officials (Sama English, May 4). Because of such persistent terrorist strikes in Punjab and KPK provinces, Iqbal was considered among the most lethal militants among law enforcement circles—and one of the most revered among Jihadist spheres.

Conclusion

The killing of Iqbal was a major achievement for the struggling KPK police amid a recent wave of attacks in the province. He was one of the most wanted militants in Pakistan and was involved in inter-provincial operations. Further, he was an experienced and seasoned operative with links to multiple Islamist militant organizations in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The fall of Kabul has also affected Pakistan’s KPK Province by precipitating a rise in terrorist attacks. Despite repeated demands from Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban has not taken significant measures against the TTP to prevent their use of Afghan territory as a safe haven. The sudden resurgence of the TTP and their attacks in KPK Province reflect this. Pakistani security policymakers must find ways of ending the TTP’s use of Afghanistan as a safe haven, else incidents of terrorism will likely increase—and previous successes on the part of police and other security forces in eliminating notorious militants like Bali prove to be in vain.

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