PAKISTAN has hailed progress in peace talks with the country’s main Taleban faction, but attacks claimed by mysterious splinter factions are threatening to undermine the process.

The Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) declared a one-month cease-fire last weekend, but that was swiftly followed by a major attack in Islamabad and a bloody roadside bombing targeting security forces — both claimed by dissident groups.

Less than 48 hours after the TTP announced its cease-fire, a gun and suicide bomb assault on an Islamabad court complex on Monday left 12 dead, the first attack in the heavily guarded capital since 2011.

It was disowned by the TTP central command but claimed by a group calling itself Ahrar-ul-Hind, while another renegade faction, Ansar-ul-Mujahideen, claimed Wednesday’s roadside bombing in the northwest that killed six paramilitary troops.

Talks aimed at ending the TTP’s seven-year insurgency resumed on Wednesday despite those blows, and on Thursday the government announced it was setting up a new committee to accelerate the process. But the attacks have raised fears that the militant movement is splintering dangerously — though several analysts said they suspected the “new” factions were simply the TTP operating under another guise.

According to militant and government sources, TTP fighters opposed to peace talks formed Ahrar-ul-Hind early last month. A written statement from the group sent to Pakistani media on Feb. 9 said it will not take part in peace talks and will carry on attacking Pakistani cities, even if the government and TTP reach a peace deal.

Few details have emerged about the group, though one militant source said many of its members were based in eastern Afghanistan.

A militant source in North Waziristan tribal district said Ahrar-ul-Hind was largely composed of Punjabi Taleban. More than 110 people have been killed in militant attacks since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced talks with the TTP in late January. As a result, some observers have suggested that the TTP is either unable to control the various militant groups carrying out attacks in Pakistan or insincere — using talks as cover to regroup and rearm.

Saifullah Mehsud, who runs the independent FATA think tank researching Pakistan’s restive tribal area, said he was doubtful about the new “splinter” groups. “To me they are all the same. I don’t see any difference between Ansar-ul Mujahideen, Ahrar-ul-Hind and the TTP. They are the same residing in the same places, sharing the same premises,” he said.

Mehsud said the hard-line stance against talks could be fueled by foreign fighters including Al-Qaeda and Uzbek militants in the tribal districts worried a peace deal might close down their bolt-holes. “They are the ones who have an interest in spoiling the peace in this region, because a peaceful FATA might not be very convenient to stay here,” Mehsud said.