The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) headed by its self-proclaimed leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, and by its infamous and ominous title, Fitna-al-Khawarij or (FAK), has firmly established an unprecedented reign of terror throughout the country of Pakistan to the extent even coping with the existing kidnappings and extortions and the brutal coercions that have now been transformed to the peaceful urban settings of Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. Horrifying range of this criminal, ideological onslaught has also been revealed in recent years with credible and verified reports, such as those published in reputable sources such as Dawn.

Their so-called holy war is more of a mafia with Kalashnikovs, grenades, and a continuous number of deaths.

FAK terror campaign is not just the outwork of confused militants, but rather a mafia-style insidious action, based on greed, power, and deliberate destruction of the Pakistani economic and social infrastructure. The establishment of businesses, politicians, professionals, and even religious minorities is becoming the main target of this violent plan. Failure to comply with these demands results in swift and deadly retribution.

Other victims who resist are subjected to horrifying reprisals such as grenades being launched into their offices and domiciles, cold-blooded target assassinate assignments and destruction of personal and business property on purpose. This bloodthirsty protection racket is an alarming development in the history of the Pakistani form of terrorism, in which justification of ideology is increasingly turned into a handy soap bubble over organized crime fueled by extortion and assassination.

The FAK ideological pretence stands no chance once investigated thoroughly and unveils the primitive mechanics of a brutal criminal mob. Although they claim to be on jihad, the actual picture is much less noble and much more dreadful. Their so-called holy war is more of a mafia with Kalashnikovs, grenades, and a continuous number of deaths. On one hand, Pakistan is fighting hard to rebuild, reform, and stabilize itself against economic challenges and regional pressures, and on the other hand, FAK strives to bomb, extort, and sabotage the infrastructure and private sector, which forms the backbone of national progress.

Their every single extortion demand is not only a personal threat to a single businessman but also an attack on the sovereignty, economy, and welfare of the country. Whenever these terrorists are chilling with their phone calls in the impregnable safety camps of Kabul and releasing blood on the streets of Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, they not only cross interstate borders, but also all possible moral and human boundaries. They do not come as ideologues or freedom fighters but as mercenaries of the ugliest kind who use faith not as a spiritual weapon but to make money.

Every extortion demand is not just personal, it’s an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Religious minorities have also been targeted by an extortion racket by FAK as it tries to dismantle the precarious fibres of social pluralism in Pakistan. Their insistence on the medieval jizya tax is just a perverted weapon of fear and intimidation. It is not a religious revival rather it is economic terrorism. Those minorities that resist and fail to pay this illegal and un-Islamic tax are dealt with the same brutal measures, the places of worship are attacked, the family threatened, their property destroyed, and in some unfortunate incidents, cold-blooded murder. Jizya by FAK is a confrontation on the ideological front to reverse the social gains of Pakistan, demolish tolerance, and establish sectarian boundaries among the communities.

Not only are such actions crimes against the people and communities, but direct blow to the notion of a pluralistic and peaceful Pakistan society. They make the concept an extortion racket, draining faith of all spiritual and moral value when this mafia claims jizya in the name of jihad.

The scope and audacity of such activities are already questioning the nature of the regional terrorism scene and the cross-border control and ineffectiveness. The repetitious nature of invocations of Afghan-based numbers to deliver threats and extortion payments indicates a transnational aspect of this menace. Even after being castigation by the Taliban government for giving haven to anti-Pakistan elements, the fact that the FAK has freedom to operate within Afghanistan is an indication otherwise.

Whenever a person in Kabul calls to threaten a businessman in Karachi, it is a betrayal of diplomatic trust, a violation of neighbourly relations, and a painful reminder of the incomplete business of countering terrorism in the region. It is not an announcement of war by some gang of armed muggers, but of chaos that has established an ideology of chaos that jeopardizes the stability in the entire region. This is a threat that the Pakistani state cannot afford to lose sight of.

Each uninterrupted attack of the grenades, every unsolved murder, strengthens the FAK and damages the trust of the population in the power of the state to safeguard the population. Since the decisive confrontation of this threat can endanger not only lives but also the economic and political future of the whole of Pakistan, as well.

Jizya by FAK is economic terrorism, not religious revival.

The most sinister aspect of the campaign conducted by FAK is that it is two-pronged in nature; a combination of crime and ideology that is mixed and making the response of the state a difficult task. FAK does not disguise its extortion as some religious imperative, not because it is driven by some genuine ideology. With this terror-mafia hybrid model, they have created a new type of enemy with all the rationales of faith on their side, bombing in the name of religion, soliciting bribes in the name of the Almighty, and proclaiming themselves the champions of rebellion when they are racketeered in the most hideous style of the mafia.

Their self-proclaimed jihad is a money-making venture: the message is simple, either pay or bomb, and there is no possible candid interpretation of any doctrine that can condone these kinds of mob actions. The lie is revealed when their grenade attacks plunge into businesses that just do not want to be blackmailed. They are not religious warriors; they are thugs dressed up as warriors, assassins whose stock is in fear, whose gold is blood.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.