Pak Taliban's debut in Sindh? Gunmen in video invoke bin Qasim's Islamic invasion

In a video, several armed men purportedly belonging to the TTP or the Pakistan Taliban make a recruitment pitch, invoking Muhammad bin Qasim's 712 Islamic conquest of Sindh and vow to raise the "flag of Islam" in the Pakistani province.

In Short

• Armed men in a purported TTP video urge Sindhis to join the outfit
• A TTP gunman invokes bin Qasim's 712 Islamic conquest of Sindh
• Pak recently claimed TTP men travelled from Afghanistan to Karachi

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or the Pakistan Taliban, whose leadership and fighters Islamabad has repeatedly alleged are based across the border in Afghanistan, appear to be making a pitch for a foothold deep inside Pakistan's Sindh province.

A video circulating on social media shows armed members purportedly belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is banned in Pakistan, addressing Sindhis in their language and asking them to join the outfit. The authenticity of the video and the identities of the armed men have not been independently verified, but it comes amid recent arrests and operations against alleged TTP operatives in Karachi, the capital of Sindh.

In the video, one of the armed men appeals to the "oppressed people of Sindh" to support the TTP, and invokes Muhammad bin Qasim, the eighth-century Arab commander who conquered Sindh after defeating Raja Dahir. The speaker says, "Inshallah", the "flag of Islam" that bin Qasim raised on Sindh's soil will be raised there again.

Local experts and observers from the Af-Pak region have described the purported video as the TTP's "announcement of its presence in Sindh".

In July, TTP militants killed 27 Pakistani policemen, including 18 officers taken hostage and later found dead, in neighbouring Balochistan, according to Pakistan's military. Pakistani agencies have repeatedly reported arrests and operations against TTP-linked militants in Karachi, including two operatives arrested earlier this month after allegedly arriving from Afghanistan.

The TTP is commonly called the Pakistan Taliban because it is a Pakistan-focused umbrella of Islamist militant groups that emerged in the mid 2000s and is distinct from, though allegedly allied with, the Afghan Taliban.

TTP GUNMEN INVOKE MUHAMMAD BIN QASIM IN VIRAL VIDEO

The video, which began circulating on social media over the weekend, shows armed men purportedly belonging to a TTP unit in Sindh.

"I want to give a message to the oppressed people of Sindh. Support Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan," one of the men says in Sindhi, according to a translation of his remarks.

The speaker then reaches back more than 1,300 years to invoke Muhammad bin Qasim's conquest of Sindh, which in 712 established the first Islamic rule in the Indian subcontinent.

"Inshallah, that day is not very far away when, on the land of Sindh, the same flag that Muhammad bin Qasim raised long ago after coming to Sindh and defeating Raja Dahir, the flag of Islam, will once again be raised," he says.

"Sons like Muhammad bin Qasim are once again turning towards the land of Sindh," he adds, before saying that the "flag of Islam" would once again be raised there.

The gunman also attacked Sindh's traditional landed power structure, asking people not to waste their lives at the behest of "waderas" and "bhuttars", terms commonly used for feudal and tribal chiefs.

"Advance for Islam. Die for Islam," he says at the end of the appeal.

Reacting to the video, Karachi-based journalist Veengas said its language resembled rhetoric used by religious extremists supporting the creation of new provinces or administrative units in Sindh.

New York Times journalist Taha Siddiqui, who now lives in Paris in exile, also described the footage as a message from the TTP's purported Sindh branch calling on locals to join the group and invoking Muhammad bin Qasim.

"Message calls on locals to join the TTP, establish an Islamist rule like that of Muhammad bin Qasim, the Arab invader responsible for a Hindu massacre in Sindh in the 8th century," Siddiqui wrote on X.

TTP MEN 'COMING FROM AFGHANISTAN', SAYS SINDH GOVT

The video emerged just weeks after Sindh's Counter-Terrorism Department claimed to have arrested two alleged TTP militants in Karachi. Pakistani daily Dawn reported on September 3 that the Sindh Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) identified the two as Umer Farooq and Abdullah and said they belonged to the TTP's Mufti Saad group. According to the CTD, the two had arrived in Karachi from Afghanistan and conducted reconnaissance of Rangers and police personnel and offices while passing information to their handlers. Two hand grenades were also recovered, the CTD claimed.

Days later, Sindh Rangers and the CTD carried out another operation in Karachi's Gulbai-Sher Shah area. They said Qari Ziaur Rehman alias Qari Saifullah, an alleged TTP-linked militant from Bajaur (in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province), was killed in an exchange of fire on September 13.

According to the Rangers, Rehman had fled to Afghanistan during a military operation in 2012 and subsequently received further training in Nangarhar, a province in eastern Afghanistan that shares an international border with Pakistan. Authorities alleged that he had recently returned from Afghanistan to Karachi and was organising a network to attack sensitive installations in the city.

The latest video, therefore, does not establish the arrival of the Pakistani Taliban in Sindh for the first time. Data records from the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), show that the TTP-related arrests in Sindh go back to 2008. It recorded six arrest-related incidents and seven arrests in the province in 2026 up to September 15, compared with four such incidents and nine arrests during 2025.

What makes the latest video notable is its messaging, as underlined by Karachi-based journalist Veengas. Rather than just indicating the presence of operatives in Karachi, the purported TTP message directly addresses Sindhis, uses the Sindhi language, invokes a defining Islamic conquest of Sindh by bin Qasim and asks locals to "die for Islam".

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(Written by Sushim Mukul)