Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is a Pakistan and Afghanistan-based terrorist organization formed in 2007. TTP aims to push the Pakistani government out of Khyber Pakhtunkwa province (formally known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and establish Sharia law through acts of terrorism. TTP draws ideological guidance from al-Qa’ida (AQ), while elements of AQ rely in part on TTP for safe haven in areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. This arrangement has given TTP access to both AQ’s global terrorist network and its members’ operational expertise.
TTP has carried out and claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist acts against Pakistani and U.S. interests, including the December 2009 suicide attack on a U.S. military base in Khost, Afghanistan that killed seven U.S. citizens, as well as the April 2010 suicide bombing against the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan that killed six Pakistani citizens. TTP is suspected of involvement in the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. TTP directed and facilitated Faisal Shahzad’s failed attempt to detonate an explosive device in New York City’s Times Square on May 1, 2010.
On September 1, 2010, the U.S. Department of State designated TTP as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended. As a result, all of TTP’s property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with TTP. It is a crime to knowingly provide, or to attempt or conspire to provide, material support or resources to TTP.
