In yet another chilling reminder of the Indian-backed Khawarij’s growing influence over impressionable minds, a young 10th-grade student from Bannu, named Tashfeen, has become the latest victim of extremist manipulation. Days after his disappearance was reported as a suspected abduction, a disturbing video surfaced in which the teenager denies being kidnapped and claims to have voluntarily joined a so-called “jihad”, which is, in fact, a war against Pakistan, not a legitimate religious struggle.
According to local residents, Tashfeen has been brainwashed by the terrorists of Fitna al-Khawarij, a term used by scholars to denote rebels who distort religious teachings for violent ends. Tashfeen’s family, already devastated by his disappearance, is now overwhelmed with fear and confusion after the release of the video.
This is not an isolated case. A similar incident unfolded earlier in Orakzai, where a police post was attacked by khawarij. One of the injured terrorists, later killed, was identified as Zulqarnain, also a 10th-grade student who had gone missing from Ghilju Bazaar months earlier. Like Tashfeen, Zulqarnain had been lured into the web of terrorism by Khawarij militants masquerading as religious warriors.
And also, the threat isn’t limited to the TTP alone. The Indian-backed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and other separatist outfits operating in Pakistan have also targeted youth, both boys and girls, pulling them into a spiral of hatred and destruction. Names like Abdul Samad, Nasrullah, Shari Baloch, Samiya Qalandrani Baloch, and Adeela Baloch are grim reminders of how these terrorist organisations weaponize youth, robbing them of their futures and families of their peace.
These terrorists, affiliated with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and declared by the state as Fitna al-Khawarij, are not only ideologically misguided but are actively supported and incentivized by hostile foreign elements, particularly India. These Indian-backed Khawarij exploit vulnerable youth by offering financial incentives and material rewards (and in female case, they blackmail them with their explicit videos), transforming innocent minds into weapons of chaos and terror aimed at destabilizing the state.
It is critical to note that this so-called “jihad” has been categorically rejected by the Ulema of Pakistan. In the recently held Paigham-e-Pakistan conference in Peshawar, religious scholars across the spectrum declared this campaign of violence a form of fasad (chaos) rather than jihad, emphatically stating that harming Pakistan is tantamount to harming Islam itself. Furthermore, even the supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban has declared that the war being waged against Pakistan is illegal and un-Islamic.
Experts warn that the Khawarij and their ideological cousins prey on emotional vulnerability, sowing seeds of rebellion by misusing religion, identity, and false narratives of oppression. Their goal is not justice or faith, it is destruction. They turn classrooms into battlegrounds and schoolchildren into suicide bombers.
Tashfeen’s case has sparked fresh calls from local leaders, parents, and civil society for the government to launch a decisive and nationwide crackdown against these extremist networks. A unified demand echoes across Bannu and beyond: protect the next generation before more innocent lives are led down a path that ends only in ruin.
It is time to reclaim our children from the clutches of Khawarij, before they become weapons in the hands of our enemies.
