Mullah Fazlullah became the group 's leader in late 2013 . In the following year , TTP fragmented into at least four groups , with the defections said to have left the group in considerable disarray . Following Fazlullah 's death by an American drone strike in Kunar province , Afghanistan , the TTP appointed Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud as the group 's new emir.TtP The roots of the TTP as an organization began in 2002 when the Pakistani military conducted incursions into the tribal areas to originally combat foreign ( Afghan , Arab and Central Asian ) militants fleeing from the war in Afghanistan into the neighbouring tribal areas of Pakistan . A 2004 article by the BBC explains : The military offensive had been part of the overall war against al-Qaeda . ... Since the start of the operation , the Pakistani military authorities have firmly established that a large number of Uzbek , Chechen and Arab militants were in the area . ... It was in July 2002 that Pakistani troops , for the first time in 55 years , entered the Tirah Valley in Khyber tribal agency . Soon they were in Shawal valley of North Waziristan , and later in South Waziristan . ... This was made possible after long negotiations with various tribes , who reluctantly agreed to allow the military 's presence on the assurance that it would bring in funds and development work . But once the military action started in South Waziristan a number of Waziri sub-tribes took it as an attempt to subjugate them . Attempts to persuade them into handing over the foreign militants failed , and with an apparently mishandling by the authorities , the security campaign against suspected al-Qaeda militants turned into an undeclared war between the Pakistani military and the rebel tribesmen . Many of the TTP 's leaders are veterans of the fighting in Afghanistan and have supported the fight against the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force by providing soldiers , training , and logistics . In 2004 various tribal groups , as explained above , that would later form the TTP , effectively established their authority in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas ( FATA ) by concurrently engaging in military attacks and negotiating with Islamabad . By this time , the militants had killed around 200 rival tribal elders in the region to consolidate control . Several Pakistani analysts also cite the inception of U.S. missile strikes in the FATA as a catalyzing factor in the rise of tribal militancy in the area . More specifically they single out an October 2006 strike on a madrassah in Bajaur that was run by the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi as a turning point
October 2006 strike
Chenagai airstrike
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan