Jamaat-ul Ahrar (JuA) was created in 2014 as a TTP splinter group360 and maintains close ties to al-Qaeda.361 The group has claimed suicide attacks targeting Pakistani security forces362 and civilians in recent years.363 In 2020, the group rejoined the TTP. However, following the death of JuA leader Omar Khalid Khorasani in a 2022 roadside bombing in Afghanistan,364 which prominent JuA figures blamed on the TTP leadership,365 disputes between JuA adherents and TTP reemerged. In 2025, there were signs that these rifts were growing, as Muhammad Imad Abbas, a researcher at the digital media outlet The Khorasan Diary, stated.366 Notably, JuA resumed operating its propaganda arm Ghazi Media,367 made efforts to expand its own alliance network, and was alleged to have adopted a ‘hedging policy’ between the TTP and its new rival, the Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan (IMP) group led by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction (HGB).368
- 360
LWJ, Taliban splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar forms in northwestern Pakistan, 26 August 2014, url
- 361
LWJ, Analysis: Pakistan attempts to shift blame for TTP attacks toward India, 8 October 2025, url
- 362
Al Jazeera, Afghanistan says Pakistan bombed Khost, killing nine children and a woman, 25 November 2025, url
- 363
LWJ, Pakistani Taliban kills scores in mosque bombing in Peshawar, 30 January 2023, url
- 364
LWJ, Analysis: Pakistan attempts to shift blame for TTP attacks toward India, 8 October 2025, url
- 365
Basit, A., Implications of TTP-Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group Competition for Pakistan’s Internal Security, The Diplomat, 25 February 2025, url
- 366
Abbas, M.I., Fractures and Realignments Among Pakistan’s Jihadist Groups, The Diplomat, 30 October 2025, url
- 367
Khorasan Diary (The), [X], posted on: 15 February 2025, url; Basit, A., Implications of TTP-Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group Competition for Pakistan’s Internal Security, The Diplomat, 25 February 2025, url
- 368
Abbas, M.I., Fractures and Realignments Among Pakistan’s Jihadist Groups, The Diplomat, 30 October 2025, url