Mingora (Pakistan) (AFP) - An MP was having tea with constituents in July in his constituency in Pakistan's northwest tribal region, when his phone vibrated when he received a call from the Taliban asking him to "donate" money.
"We hope you won't disappoint us," said the threatening text message, sent by a mediator for the Pakistani Taliban.
A second message quickly followed, warning: "Refusing financial support will make you a problem. We think a wise man will understand what we mean."
Since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021, the Pakistani Taliban's attempts to extort money on the border with Afghanistan have increased.
The Pakistani Taliban is a separate group from the Afghan Taliban, but it is driven by the same ideology and has a common history. Its resolve was intensified after the Afghan movement took control of the neighboring country last year.
The deputy, who asked not to be named since the summer, was forced to pay khawat to the Pakistani Taliban, which has so far amounted to 1.2 million rupees (5,200 euros).
"Those who don't pay face the consequences. Sometimes they throw a grenade at their door, sometimes they shoot at them," he told AFP.
He continued, "The vast majority of the elites pay the brothers. Some pay more, some less, but no one discloses the matter, everyone fears for their lives."
The Pakistani Taliban was founded in 2007 and established by Pakistani jihadists allied with al-Qaeda, who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s before opposing Islamabad's support for the Americans after they invaded the neighboring country in 2001.
Most of the movement's elements are ethnic Pashtuns, similar to the Afghan Taliban.
The tribal areas in northwest Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan are the cradle of the Pakistani Taliban, which in less than a decade has killed tens of thousands of civilians and members of the Pakistani security forces.
And it reached the peak of its influence between 2007 and 2009 when it controlled the Swat Valley, 140 km north of Islamabad, imposing its strict interpretation of Sharia law.
After the decline of its strength due to the bombing of American drones, internal divisions, and the joining of its elements to the Islamic State, the movement was expelled from the tribal areas during a large-scale operation carried out by the Pakistani army in 2014.
The Pakistani Taliban began to regain its strength in the summer of 2020 with the accession of dissident factions to it, but the real turning point was with the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani security analyst Imtiaz Gul said that Afghanistan has since become an "open haven" for the movement's fighters, after the US-led coalition was chasing them there.
"They now have complete freedom of movement" in the neighboring country, he said, adding, "This is one of the reasons that led to the increase in the attacks of the Pakistani Taliban."
Although these attacks were less bloody than the past and directed primarily against the security forces, they have increased by 50% since August 2021, killing 433 people, according to the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services.
"They are playing the same game as before: targeted attacks, bomb blasts, kidnappings and extortion money calls," said activist in Swat Ahmed Shah.
Extortion is a means of financing the movement, which also allows it to undermine the confidence of the population in local institutions. Representative Nasser Muhammad says that it affects 80 to 95% of the region's well-to-do population.
Some parliamentarians were attacked after they refused to pay money, while others stopped visiting their constituencies for fear of being attacked.
Muhammad said that the Pakistani Taliban has "its own system of reward and punishment. It has established an alternative government, so how can people resist it?"
There are old differences between the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. The Afghan Taliban has repeatedly confirmed that it will not allow terrorist groups to operate on its soil.
However, the first indication of an attempt to extort from the Pakistani Taliban is the caller number, which begins with the Afghanistan code 0093, followed by a text message dispelling any confusion, or a voice message in the Pakistani accented Pashto language.
Agence France-Presse saw a message addressed to one of the owners, warning him, "The hour of cruelty is approaching. Do not think that we are finished."
The required amount is often paid through an intermediary, and extortion victims are required to contribute several times a year.
The Pakistani Taliban, which has lost much of the popular support it had domestically before 2014, claims that this system of extortion is the work of criminals using its name.
But an official in the local intelligence confirms that the movement "is behind the threat."
The residents of the Swat Valley fear the return of the gloomy days, and they expressed their opposition to the movement by organizing several demonstrations in the past weeks.
Peace negotiations are underway between Islamabad and the Taliban, which declared a truce that neither party respects.
The return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan after two decades of war with the West proves that the solution is unlikely to be military.
"We have to look for a solution that is acceptable to both parties," said Muhammad Ali Saif, one of the government's negotiators, stressing that "a permanent agreement must be reached."
