Pakistan minister announces arrest of key Taliban leaders ‘planning’ to establish safe havens in southwest

ISLAMABAD: The Home Minister of Balochistan, Mir Ziaullah Langau, on Wednesday announced the arrest of what he described as two key commanders of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), saying security forces had apprehended them in a complex operation that thwarted their plans to establish safe havens in the southwestern province.
The TTP, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, is a conglomerate of militant groups formed in 2007, which has been designated a terrorist organization by several countries, including the United States. 
Islamabad says the network’s leadership is mostly based in Afghanistan, from where its operatives launch high-profile attacks within Pakistan, including deadly suicide bombings targeting security forces, public spaces and schools. The government in Kabul denies it allows its territory to be used by militants. 
Addressing a news conference, Langau congratulated Pakistan’s intelligence agencies on the arrest of the two commanders, Nasrullah alias Maulvi Mansoor and Idris alias Irshad, and played a ‘confessionary’ video of the former, who introduced himself as a member of the TTP’s defense council.
“Before joining the TTP, I participated in terrorist activities from Baitullah Mehsud’s platform since 2005,” he said, referring to one of the founders of the TTP. “When the TTP was established in 2007, I became its member.”
Nasrullah said he had been associated with the militant network for the last 16 years during which he participated in countless operations and fled to Afghanistan during the army’s 2014 Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan.
He said he was called by the top TTP leader Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud to Kandahar and ordered to go to Balochistan to carry out a special assignment in collaboration with the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
“The aim was to create safe havens in different areas of Balochistan to launch terrorist activities in the province,” Nasrullah said.
The TTP wanted to pursue three objectives, the militant said, including sabotaging the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor by targeting Chinese nationals, kidnapping for ransom to highlight enforced disappearances and discredit local intelligence agencies, and spreading anarchy and frustration among the people of Balochistan.
He said the plan was masterminded with the help of the BLA and that India’s intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was “behind” it.
“Today, I can say with full confidence that India is behind the entire TTP system, especially in financial matters,” he said. “Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud meets the officials of the Indian secret agency RAW at the Indian embassy in Kabul, which is fully supported by the current Afghan administration.”
Nasrullah also said the Afghan interim government in Kabul was facilitating the TTP network.
It was not immediately clear under what circumstances Nasrullah’s video was recorded and if he was speaking freely or under duress. Neither the Afghan nor the Indian governments have as yet commented on his claims. 
The Balochistan province has seen a decades-long insurgency against what separatists call the unfair exploitation of resources in the mineral-rich region.
Most of the separatist groups operate independently, but some recent reports in local media have pointed to increasing cooperation between them and with the TTP.
Pakistani security forces have been their main focus, but in recent years they have also targeted Chinese interests, given Beijing’s increasing economic footprint in the region.