Claim: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has issued a letter congratulating Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Ali Amin Gandapur for being nominated as the candidate for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) chief minister.
Fact: The letter circulating on social media is fake. The TTP did not issue any such letter.
Elections 2024
According to the results issued by the ECP, independent candidates backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are leading by winning the most seats in the National Assembly. However, no political party has been able to secure a simple majority to form the government.
Protests have erupted across the country following allegations of widespread rigging during the general election, which were levelled by Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and other nationalist groups. With no clear winner declared, the country is in turmoil as multiple parties have laid claim to the government.
Ali Amin Gandapur has been nominated as the candidate for KP’s chief minister by PTI’s founder, Imran Khan. With PTI securing 84 seats in the KP Assembly, the party is in a position to form the government. Khan made the announcement while addressing journalists from Adiala jail, where he is presently detained in connection with several cases.
Ali Amin Gandapur
A prominent Pakistani politician, Gandapur served as the Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan from 5 October 2018 to 10 April 2022. Prior to this, he was a member of KP’s Provincial Assembly from 2013 to 2018, during which he held the position of Provincial Minister for Revenue.
Hailing from a politically active Pashtun family in Dera Ismail Khan, Gandapur’s father, Major (retd) Aminullah Gandapur also had a notable political career. Sardar Faisal Amin Khan Gandapur, his brother, is also actively involved in politics.
Gandapur’s early schooling took place in Dera Ismail Khan and he later pursued his BA (honors) from Gomal University.
He entered politics through the PTI, and contested successfully, winning both the provincial and national seats in the 2024 elections.
Fact or Fiction?
On 13 February 2024, a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) official Abdul Majid Kalwar (@Majid_PSF), posted (archive) a letter on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) congratulated Ali Amin Gandapur for his nomination as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s next chief minister.
His tweet reads,
“TTP’s letter to congratulate Ali Amin Gandapur on being nominated as CM KPK by political wing of Talibans, with the hope they will get relief and help from KPK Govt to fulfil their desires.”
The content of the letter has been reproduced below:
“الیکشن کے حوالے سے تحریک طالبان پاکستان کا اعلامیہ
ہم اپنے محترم بھائی اور دوست جناب علی امین گنڈہ پور صاحب کو وزیر اعلی پختو نخواہ نامز د ہونے پر مبارکباد پیش کرتے ہیں۔ ہمیں امید ہے کہ آپکی حکومت میں ہمیں ریلیف بھی ملے گا اور ہمیں
ہمارے مقصد کو پہنچنے کیلئے مدد بھی فراہم ہو گی ہم آپکو یقین دلاتے ہیں کہ ہم ہمیشہ آپکے ساتھ ہیں اور ہمیشہ آپکے ساتھ رہینگے
والسلام طالب دعا: عرفان شاہ
[Translation: Memo of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan regarding the election
We congratulate our esteemed brother and friend Mr. Ali Amin Gandapur Sahib on being nominated as Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. We hope that we will get relief from your government and we will get some help in reaching our goal. We assure you that we are always with you and will always be with you.
Wasalam requesting prayers: Irfan Shah]”
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be false. Abdul Basit, a Senior Associate Fellow who covers extremism and militancy in South Asia at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore, confirmed to us that it’s “a fake letter. The TTP has not issued any such letter”.
Basit explained, “On 13 February only one election-related statement was shared from TTP’s social media channels. It seems that someone has used that screenshot and only replaced the text with this one. TTP does not sign off its statements like ‘Wsslaam, Talibe Dua Irfan Shah’.”
Analysing the letter, Basit pointed out that TTP statements have a serial number. “Had this been a legit TTP statement, despite the same date, it should have carried a different serial number. So, while it is a work with cleverness and finesse, they forgot to change the serial number,” he said.
Basit also added, “TTP has condemned democracy and urged religious parties, which did poorly in elections, to join hands with it for bringing about Shariah in the country. So, it is counterintuitive to assume that the same group which condemned democracy will praise a CM who rose to the top in KP through the same process, which TTP terms as a sham.”
Journalist, analyst and co-founder of The Khorasan Diary, Ihsan Tipu said that the letter circulating online is “fake”. “TTP denied it, which they don’t when they issue something officially”, he said.
While questioning the sources of the letter, Tipu added that it was not shared with him by the TTP. In fact, he saw non-TTP accounts sharing it on social media, particularly political opponents of PTI.
Virality
The claim can be found here, here, here, here, here and here on X.
The letter was also posted here, here, here, here and here on Facebook.
Conclusion: Contrary to the viral claim, the TTP did not issue a letter congratulating PTI’s Ali Amin Gandapur for his nomination as the candidate for KP’s chief minister. It has been confirmed that the letter is fake, as the TTP denied issuing such a letter.
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