Syed Eesar Mehdi is currently associated with a project at Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. He is also an Associate Research Fellow at International Centre for Peace Studies, New Delhi, India.
The recent Pakistani move to push out Afghan refugees seems to have been less carefully thought through because it could jeopardise informal relationship between the Afghan people and the Pakistan government at the popular level on the one hand and rile the Pakistani Pashtun population in the border areas on the other. Rather than containing the TTP, this move may actually further legitimize its Islamist campaign against the Pakistan state.