What exactly does the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) want? After all, the militant organisation has been killing our people and soldiers across the country, and is clearly not inclined towards putting an end to its bloody campaign. Surely, it must want something. And we, who have been at the receiving end for years now, must know exactly what it is. Then, why is it that whenever this seemingly simple and extremely basic question is raised, it presents itself as nothing short of a complex puzzle, with most people struggling to put the pieces together in order to make sense of it all.
Confused and frustrated, we look towards the TTP itself to answer the question for them. But the TTP’s ‘mission statement’ almost always changes with the direction of the wind.
If there is anything the TTP has consistently done right, it is its assessment of the prevalent mood in the country. Whatever the flavour of the month, the TTP is quick to readjust and realign accordingly. For example, when it’s the US drone strikes that are making the headlines, and Mr Imran Khan is busy putting on his extraordinary shows of selective outrage, it releases statements to support his false narrative, which solely links terrorism in Pakistan with the US drone programme.
When it’s the NATO supplies passing through Pakistan, which are facing ‘resistance’ from our apologetic leaders and their blind followers, the TTP wastes no time jumping on the bandwagon. Statements are released in condemnation of the state’s stance with respect to the war in Afghanistan. The problem suddenly appears to finds its roots in Afghanistan, and not in Pakistan altogether. NATO leaves, everything will be fine.
To find out about the latest trend, please tune in to any talk show during primetime. Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Lal Masjid, who is also a member of the Taliban committee, has been claiming since his not-so-surprising selection that the TTP’s ‘struggle’ is for one cause only: imposition of Sharia law in Pakistan. Do just that, and terrorism will vanish as if it never existed. So, there, we have yet another answer for the same question. The TTP has endorsed Maulana’s claim. Neither the drones, nor Afghanistan matter. One wonders what Mr Khan has to say now.
So, seriously, what is it then? Drones? NATO supplies? Afghanistan? Or this latest Sharia law demand? None of them? Bull’s eye. The reality is the TTP primary objective is power by any means possible. The fact that it routinely kills innocents, if nothing else, tell us that it is not a moral entity, to say the least. Like others, it can lie too. And, it has time and again. Still is. Never again should we let the TTP tell us what it wants. We can deduce that ourselves. The government is advised, even though it almost never listens, to stop wasting its time on this so-called ‘peace process’, and start speaking in the only language militants understand.