A bureaucratic bid to defeat terrorism has been recently announced in Pakistan where the Government has formally declared the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as ‘Fitna al-Khawarij. ’ Amidst this official communication, a notification by Ministry of Interior is striving to unveil the actual face and character of TTP as opposed to the true Islamic spirit.
The government is trying to substitute the TTP with a new name, ‘Khariji’ which defines the new calamitous character of the organization. Moreover, the religious titles of ‘Mufti’ and ‘Hafiz’ will not be associated with any person connected with a terrorist group. Rather, depending on the type of leprosy they suffer from, a prefix of “Khariji” will be added to every name.
This rebranding is a part of an extensive anti-terrorism drive to demoralize TTP and eliminate its source of funding. The Ministry has also instructed all the government departments to use the new terminology in all their communication and documentation starting from that day.
Expanding its counterterrorism efforts, the government has also outlawed two additional militant groups: has now placed the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group (HGBG) and Majeed Brigade (MB) under the banned organizations list and the count has reached eighty one. The said organization, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), has amended its list in this regard as well.
In this way, the government will be able to demonstrate that the TTP and other, connected organizations are criminals who have nothing to do with Islam, thus striving for the isolation of these groups and the protection of the country from further acts of violence and assaults to the stability of the state.