Pakistani Taliban are redefining their goal

Significance

In late April, it bombed the car park of a luxury hotel in Quetta, capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan province. The organisation is currently in merger talks with various insurgent groups, including ones that used to be factions within it.

Impacts

• The TTP will increasingly support the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a hard-line Islamist party recently banned by the Pakistani government.
• An alliance between the TTP and Islamic State remains unlikely.
• The TTP will operate mainly from Loya Paktia, a region of south-eastern Afghanistan where most of its forces are now based.