The Pakistani Taliban pledged Thursday not to attack election rallies, saying their targets are limited to the military and security forces, as political parties and independent candidates ramp up their campaigns ahead of the Feb. 8 vote.
“We have nothing to do with these elections and the parties participating in them,” the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, said in a statement. Other militant groups have not made similar pledges, and some previous Pakistani elections have been marred by violence. Two-time former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in a bomb attack in 2007 minutes after she addressed an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Her son, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, is leading the campaign for her Pakistan People’s Party.
Thursday’s rare pledge by the TTP came after the government approved the deployment of troops in sensitive constituencies after intelligence agencies warned that militants could target rallies, which are usually held outdoors in public places.
The TTP are a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, which seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021. Pakistan has experienced many militant attacks in recent years, but there has been an increase since November 2022, when the TTP ended a monthslong cease-fire with the government.
In 2023, nearly 500 civilians and a similar number of security forces were killed in militant attacks clamed by the TTP, the Islamic State group and other insurgents. Most of the violence in 2023 was reported in the northwest and southwest near Afghanistan.
The increase in violence has raised fears among political candidates.
