The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is an armed Islamist militant and terrorist group in Pakistan which was founded in December 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud. In 2002, following the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Afghan, Arab, and Central Asian militants crossed the Pakistani border and found sanctuary in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the Afghan border. In 2004, various tribal groups united to seize control of the FATA region, and, in December 2007, these tribal militias allied with the foreign militants to form the "Taliban Movement of Pakistan" (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan), led by Baitullah Mehsud. The TTP received ideological guidance from al-Qaeda and drew its recruits from the tribal belt along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, and, in 2009, the TTP held talks with the Afghan Taliban to bridge their ideological differences and form a united front against the United States and its allies. Under Maulana Fazlullah, the TTP banned music, dancing, televisions, CDs, computers, and barbershops in the Swat Valley, seeking to eradicate vice in the territories it controlled. The TTP carried out suicide bombings against civilian and military targets, collaborated with other Islamist militant groups, waged war on the Pakistan Army, and took part in cross-border attacks into Afghanistan to reinforce the Taliban. During the late 2010s, the TTP suffered from factionalism as Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fidai Mahaz split from the main group and feuded with the main organization, and the TTP also fought against the Islamic State's Wilayah Khorasan province. In late 2020, however, Noor Wali Mehsud oversaw the reunification of the TTP, which once again engaged in deadly attacks.