Pakistan Tirah Valley: No Airstrikes, Only Terrorist Bombs – OpEd
The recent wave of disinformation targeting Pakistan’s security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) reflects a recurring pattern in the politics of terrorism and identity in South Asia. As someone who has studied these dynamics through the lens of international relations and counterterrorism discourse, it is clear that the narrative being pushed by PTM-linked activists alleging indiscriminate “bombings” of Pashtun villages by the state is not only misleading but dangerously undermines efforts to restore peace in the region.
Let us be precise: the incident in Tirah Valley was not the result of Pakistani military airstrikes, but of a catastrophic explosion inside a TTP weapons depot hidden within a civilian settlement. Police and security agencies confirmed that at least 14 TTP operatives, including local commanders, were killed instantly when their cache of explosives detonated. Tragically, nearby civilians also perished because the terrorists had deliberately embedded their bomb-making facility in a residential compound, a tactic long documented by both local and international observers of asymmetric warfare.
A report from the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) in 2023 noted that nearly 34 percent of militant attacks in KP involved terrorists using civilian structures including homes, mosques, madrassas as shields for logistics or recruitment. By placing improvised explosive devices and suicide bomb vests in family compounds, the TTP has turned ordinary households into unwilling human bunkers, exposing women and children to the direct consequences of their militant agenda.
Yet propaganda spread quickly, activists claimed Pakistani jets had bombed Tirah and Lakki Marwat, killing families in their homes. These allegations echoed across social media, particularly in diaspora circles, where PTM figures amplify every tragedy to frame the state as ‘colonial’ and ‘Punjabi oppressors.’ But facts matter. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) categorically stated that no aircraft operated in Tirah or Lakki Marwat on the days in question, and local police corroborated this, confirming no evidence of bombing. On the contrary, the explosion originated from within a terrorist stockpile.
Independent journalists who attempted to verify the claim in Lakki Marwat also found no signs of airstrikes or destroyed infrastructure consistent with jet bombardment. In international relations scholarship, this is a textbook case of insurgent propaganda: violent non-state actors exploit civilian deaths caused by their own reckless tactics to delegitimize state authority and gain sympathy. The TTP has long followed this playbook, and PTM-linked voices, knowingly or unknowingly, serve as echo chambers for this manipulation.
The disinformation narrative is further bolstered by framing KP as a “colony” of Pakistan. This rhetoric is emotionally powerful but analytically hollow. KP is not a colony; it is a federating unit whose people are deeply woven into the political, military, and cultural fabric of Pakistan. Over 70,000 lives have been lost to terrorism in Pakistan since 2001, with Pashtuns paying the heaviest price, as shown in the National Internal Security Policy 2022 report.
But to blame the state for this carnage is to invert reality. It is terrorism not the state that has turned schools into rubble and bazaars into graveyards. Recall December 2014, when TTP gunmen stormed the Army Public School in Peshawar and massacred over 140 children. Recall the suicide bombings of jirgas, the destruction of 1,200 schools in Swat and FATA during 2007–2014, and the killing of maliks and tribal elders who resisted militants. None of these were acts of the Pakistani state they were the handiwork of terrorists. Today, when Pakistan’s security forces conduct targeted counter-terror operations, they do so to prevent a repeat of APS, Swat, or Bajaur. Civilian casualties occur tragically but only because militants hide among civilians. To conflate counter-terrorism with colonialism is therefore not only inaccurate but deeply insulting to the martyrs’ soldiers and civilians alike who have bled to secure KP’s future.
It is also essential to highlight the state’s development footprint in KP, which the “colony” narrative deliberately erases. Since the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with KP in 2018, Islamabad has allocated hundreds of billions of rupees for reconstruction and integration. According to the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, the Accelerated Implementation Program (AIP) for merged districts earmarked Rs 100 billion annually for projects in education, health, energy, and roads. The Asian Development Bank reported in 2022 that over 3,000 kilometers of roads were being built or rehabilitated in KP’s tribal districts, while the World Bank has funded programs to restore schools and health units destroyed by militants. Electricity grids, skill-development centers, and women’s empowerment initiatives are part of this broader effort to bring the region into the mainstream economy. This is not colonialism—it is reconstruction after years of war forced upon the state by external shocks from Afghanistan’s instability and internal insurgency. To claim otherwise is to close one’s eyes to material evidence on the ground.
International relations theory warns us against the dangers of “securitization without context.” When PTM leaders abroad, such as in their recent Ohio meeting, label Pakistan’s counter-terror operations as “genocide,” they are not simply misrepresenting facts they are internationalizing a narrative that aligns with hostile actors’ interests. Manzoor Pashteen’s online participation in this meeting, in which he called for “stronger resistance” against the Pakistani state, shows how diaspora activism is being leveraged to protect TTP’s image. Instead of condemning militants who store explosives in civilian homes, Pashteen exploits such tragedies to incite anger against the state. In doing so, he becomes less a champion of Pashtun rights and more an amplifier of insurgent rhetoric. The parallels with other insurgencies are striking: in Sri Lanka, the LTTE used civilian suffering to portray itself as the sole protector of Tamils; in Afghanistan, the Taliban depicted NATO strikes as proof of Western “occupation.” In both cases, propaganda masked the militants’ own brutality. PTM’s narrative risks following this same arc, with dangerous consequences for peace in KP.
Equally problematic is the selective framing of women’s issues in KP. Bushra Gohar, for instance, claimed Pashtun women are the greatest victims of what she called a “suicidal Taliban project,” suggesting the state has failed to protect them. While it is true that women bore immense suffering under militant rule denied schooling, mobility, and even healthcare her statement neglects the transformative progress made since military operations dismantled Taliban control. According to KP’s Elementary and Secondary Education Department, girls’ enrollment in former FATA districts has increased by nearly 40 percent since 2017. Health initiatives, such as the Sehat Sahulat Program, now provide subsidized medical care to thousands of women in rural KP. NGOs like Khwendo Kor report that women-led entrepreneurship has grown in Swat and Dir thanks to microfinance schemes supported by the provincial government. These changes were only possible because terrorists were pushed back. To ignore this and attribute all blame to the state paints an incomplete picture that erases Pashtun women’s resilience and the very real role of state institutions in enabling their empowerment.
The “KP as colony” discourse must also be situated within broader geopolitical currents. Since 2001, Pakistan’s western border has been destabilized by spillovers from the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. The rise of TTP was directly linked to the sanctuary it enjoyed across the Durand Line. According to the UN Security Council’s 2023 monitoring report, TTP maintains ties with the Afghan Taliban and uses Afghan soil for operations against Pakistan. This transnational dimension complicates Pakistan’s counter-terror struggle. To accuse the Pakistani state of manufacturing insecurity in KP while ignoring cross-border militancy is not only analytically flawed but strategically irresponsible. States are bound by the principle of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter; Pakistan’s counter-terror measures are rooted in this legal right. Calling them “colonial” or “terroristic” undermines the legitimacy of state sovereignty itself.
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