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High-profile atrocities, including the 2014 Army Public School (APS) Peshawar massacre where 132 children were killed, were allegedly directed by the Pakistan Army and ISI
This account is corroborated by the assessment of top Indian intelligence sources, who assert that Pakistan continues to employ proxy militant groups to carry out domestic terror attacks while maintaining deniability. Representational image/AP
Pakistan’s state apparatus actively orchestrates sophisticated terror attacks against its own citizens. These explosive claims, stemming from top Indian intelligence sources and the insider account of former Pakistan Army officer Mudassir Iqbal, allege a strategic playbook designed to achieve political and military objectives.
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According to Iqbal, a former officer in the Sindh Regiment who later served in the Special Service Group (SSG), high-profile atrocities, including the devastating 2014 Army Public School (APS) Peshawar massacre, where 132 children were killed, were allegedly directed by the Army and ISI. Iqbal claims the operation, carried out by attackers supposedly under the TTP’s Maulana Fazlullah, was ordered by the Pakistan Army leadership specifically to manipulate public perception and frame the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. In a shocking detail, he alleges that after the initial neutralisation of the attackers, additional children were killed to reinforce the false narrative against the TTP.
This account is corroborated by the assessment of top Indian intelligence sources, who assert that Pakistan continues to employ proxy militant groups to carry out domestic terror attacks while maintaining deniability. They note that recent attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and tribal regions share a similar operational signature—coordinated ambushes and the targeting of civilians in schools and public spaces—suggesting a “strategic playbook”. These operations, they claim, serve multiple objectives: consolidating military control over volatile regions, discrediting genuine opposition groups, and allowing the state to experiment with tactics that could be “exported in cross-border scenarios”.
Both sources converge on the conclusion that the APS Peshawar model and the subsequent violence in KPK show a deliberate strategy of internal terror, where militants like the TTP are used as instruments. The state-controlled media is then allegedly used to systematically frame these events as insurgent activity.
Indian Intelligence sources warn that this pattern indicates a high likelihood of future proxy-based terror incidents, potentially targeting border-adjacent or minority areas, as Delhi prioritises the scrutiny of this aggression and its operational methodology.
About the Author
Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18
Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18
September 27, 2025, 00:08 IST
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