Pakistani Field Marshal and Army Chief Asim Munir has been openly challenged by the Pakistani Taliban amid his country's crisis with Afghanistan.
Pakistani Taliban challenges Asim Munir: 'Face us if you are a man'
The outfit has released a string of videos targeting the Pakistani Army and daring it to send its top officials to the battlefield instead of soldiers
Months after his promotion to the rank of the prestigious Field Marshal in the Pakistani Army and amid his threatening remarks against arch-rival India and Islamabad's ongoing crisis with Kabul, Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir has faced a new problem to deal with, and this time, it is from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or the Pakistani Taliban based within.
The outfit recently released a series of videos that have shown one of its top commanders threatening Munir, an NDTV report said. According to it, the TTP leader, while threatening the field marshal, said the Pakistani Army should avoid sending soldiers to get killed and should see its top officials leading on the battlefield.
The videos also featured footage of the deadly ambush on Pakistani soldiers that took place in the Kurram district of Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan on October 8. According to the TTP, 22 Pakistani soldiers were killed in the attack.
The videos also showed ammunition and vehicles that were captured. Pakistani authorities, however, said 11 soldiers were killed. A major and a lieutenant colonel were among those who died.
'Fight us if you had your mother's milk'
According to the NDTV report, one clip showed a senior TTP leader, identified by the Pakistani side as Commander Kazim, appearing on the camera to say, “Face us if you are a man”. He is also heard saying in the same clip, “Fight us if you had your mother’s milk.”
Also read: Taliban denies Pakistan’s claim of India’s role in border clash
The government of Khyber-Paktunkhwa on October 21 declared a bounty of Pakistani Rs 10 crore on the head of Kazim, believed to be in the killings of October 8. Kazim hails from the Kurram district.
Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes
The TTP’s threat videos also surfaced days after border skirmishes and air strikes between Pakistan and the Taliban-led Afghanistan led to several deaths and saw an immediate ceasefire mediated by countries such as Qatar and Turkey.
The Pakistani government, however, put the onus on Afghanistan, saying the agreement’s success depended on Afghanistan’s act to rein in the armed groups that are targeting the Pakistani side.
Also read: Pakistan and Afghanistan agree to ceasefire after deadly border clashes
The two countries’ once-warm relations worsened drastically after Islamabad accused Kabul of sheltering members of the TTP and other armed outfits that carried out attacks against Pakistan.
Munir remains obsessed with threatening India
While the Pakistani media have warned that the TTP’s activities have encouraged other armed groups that could jeopardise the country’s internal security and put its military under more stress, Munir remained obsessed with threatening India.
Also read: Khawaja Asif warns Afghanistan of ‘heavy price’ for terror
On October 18, Munir remarked at the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad that Pakistan would come up with a forceful response if ‘proxies’ continued to target his country. Taking a veiled dig at India and the Afghan Taliban, he claimed that Afghanistan’s soil was being used to promote terrorism in Pakistan.