How the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of TTP, BLA, and ISIS-K Brought the Pakistan Military to Its Knees

Islamabad, Pakistan – On a day meant for patriotic celebrations, Pakistan finds itself gripped by fear, violence, and uncertainty, as resurgent militancy tears through its cities, military strongholds, and once-secure regions. The country that once prided itself as a frontline warrior against terrorism is now crumbling under its own failures, caught in a web of strategic miscalculations, policy blunders, and a deep-rooted history of nurturing extremism for geopolitical gains.

The numbers tell a story of disaster. According to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2025, terrorist attacks in Pakistan doubled from 517 in 2023 to 1,099 in 2024, with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) executing 482 of them, killing 558 people—a staggering 91% increase from the previous year. The TTP’s resurgence is no accident. It is the direct consequence of Pakistan’s misguided foreign policy, military complacency, and years of playing both sides of the terror equation.

The Monster Pakistan Fed Has Come for Blood

For years, Pakistan’s military intelligence complex cultivated militant groups as "strategic assets", using them to exert influence in Afghanistan and India. When the Afghan Taliban stormed into Kabul in 2021, Pakistan’s generals celebrated, believing they had installed a puppet regime next door. Instead, they unleashed a nightmare.

The Afghan Taliban now openly shelters the TTP, giving them safe havens to regroup and launch attacks on Pakistan. Islamabad, which once dictated terms to the Taliban, is now begging them to rein in the TTP—and getting nothing in return. The very extremist ideology Pakistan nurtured for decades is now consuming it from within.

A Renewed Offensive Against Pakistani Military

The January 30, 2023, Peshawar police mosque bombing, which killed 95 officers, was the TTP’s declaration of war against Pakistan’s security forces. By March 2025, the group had shattered all illusions of military control, striking even in fortified areas like Bannu Cantt. And it’s not just the TTP.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has escalated its insurgency, carrying out 504 attacks in 2024, up from just 116 in 2023. The March 11, 2025, Jaffar Express bombing, which killed 21 civilians and four soldiers, exposed the state’s complete failure to secure even its critical infrastructure. Meanwhile, ISIS-K, Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s faction, and over 75 smaller militant outfits are feeding off the state’s incompetence.

Pakistan’s Counterterrorism Policy: A Masterclass in Failure

If confusion and contradictions could be weaponized, Pakistan’s counterterrorism strategy would be lethal. Every major military operation—Zarb-e-Azb (2014), Radd-ul-Fasaad (2017), and even the 2022 crackdown on TTP strongholds—has been a temporary fix to a problem that Pakistan refuses to acknowledge at its root.

Instead of dismantling terror networks, Pakistan has repeatedly recycled them—cutting deals with militants, allowing them to resettle, and then acting surprised when they turn on the state.

Imran Khan’s 2021 negotiations with the TTP, which included allowing fighters to return to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, directly led to the current carnage. The Pakistan Army, once seen as the nation’s last line of defence, now finds itself outmanoeuvred, outgunned, and outwitted by the very groups it once patronized.

The Human Cost: A Nation Held Hostage by Its Own Failures

For the people of Pakistan, daily life is now a gamble between survival and becoming another statistic in the GTI report. The worst-hit regions—Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan (where 90% of attacks occur)—are slipping out of the government’s control.

• December 2023: 23 Pakistani soldiers killed in Dera Ismail Khan—one of the deadliest attacks on the military in years.
• September 2023: Chitral, once considered secure, saw a wave of TTP attacks, exposing the military’s vulnerabilities.
• Balochistan: Civilians are kidnapped and assassinated regularly, highways are war zones, and military convoys are constantly ambushed.

The Peshawar bombing protests were one of the rare moments when civilians openly challenged the state’s failures. But the government’s response? Empty condemnations, meaningless security meetings, and a refusal to confront the real issue—the deep-seated extremist infrastructure that Pakistan refuses to dismantle.

Economic and Diplomatic Fallout: The Price of Harboring Terror

Militancy isn’t just killing Pakistanis—it’s strangling the economy. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), once hailed as Pakistan’s economic saviour, is now a sitting duck for BLA and TTP attacks, with Chinese engineers being repeatedly targeted. Foreign investors are pulling out, unwilling to risk billions in a country where suicide bombings are routine.

Trade routes are collapsing, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the TTP is reasserting its control over smuggling and taxation networks. Internationally, Pakistan’s terrorism problem has made it a pariah. Kabul has turned its back on Islamabad, refusing to curb the TTP. India continues to isolate Pakistan diplomatically, pointing to its own cross-border militancy problems.

The United States, once a key partner, has downgraded security cooperation, refusing to trust Pakistan’s ability to control its own militant landscape. With fewer allies and increasing isolation, Pakistan is now begging for support, but its reputation as a safe haven for terrorists has made it toxic.

Pakistan’s National Day: A Celebration or a Funeral Procession?

This Pakistan Day should have been a moment of unity and pride. Instead, it serves as a reminder of a state unravelling under its own contradictions.

• A government too weak to protect its people.
• A military once feared, is now running out of options.
• A nation held hostage by the very monsters it created.

The only way out of this abyss is a radical, uncompromising shift—one that Pakistan’s ruling establishment has neither the will nor the courage to make. Until then, the country will continue its slow descent into chaos, where the celebrations of National Day will be drowned out by the echoes of gunfire and the wails of grieving families.