The recently reported ‘secret’ negotiations between the federal government and the banned militant outfit, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which is based in Afghanistan have surprised many. Federal Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb on June 3, 2022, acknowledged that Pakistan was negotiating a peace deal with the TTP, and the Afghan Taliban were acting as mediators between the two sides, while Pakistan welcomed the ceasefire announced by the TTP which extended it for an indefinite period after the Pakistani tribal jirga visited Kabul and held talks with the TTP leadership. Sources point out that the TTP has put forward several demands which include the reversal of the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which rid the tribal people of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), a relic of the colonial era, and brought the population into the mainstream. The TTP also wants Pakistan’s laws and courts to be replaced by Sharia laws enforced by Sharia courts in Malakand followed by other tribal areas, monetary compensation, and allowing the TTP group to keep their arms. But the Pakistani side wants them to lay down their arms and has also refused to restore the status of FATA.
It is notable that unlike other countries’ war against terrorism, Pakistan’s Armed Forces displayed unbelievable progress through the military operation Zarb-e-Azb—which started on June 15, 2014, against the militants in North Waziristan Agency and afterward extended to other tribal areas—has almost achieved its objectives, while the military operation Radd-ul-Fasaad continues successfully. Addressing the Defence Day and Martyrs Day ceremony on September 6, 2017, Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa stated: “The country passed through a very difficult phase during the past two decades…Our forces and nation have rendered sacrifices in the war against terrorism…Our houses, schools, and leaders were attacked. Efforts were made to weaken us internally.” Noting that more than 70,000 Pakistanis were martyred and injured in this war (till 2017), the army chief vowed to collectively fight this menace of terrorism. Earlier, showing the progress of the Zarb-e-Azb, the then Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Raheel Sharif said: “Terrorists have been cleared from their strongholds in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency and the fight now is moving into the last few pockets close to the Afghan border.” He laid emphasis on the “continuation of operations till the elimination of the last expected and probable terrorist groups and sanctuaries.”
In the recent past, terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s various provinces, especially Balochistan, show that India’s RAW and other intelligence agencies are destabilising Pakistan. These intelligence entities want to damage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is a part of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, as the US and India have already opposed this project. It appears as if TTP’s insurgents have lost major ground, and in severe frustration, they are trying to create some kind of so-called pressure on the government and the Armed Forces through some terror activities. In November 2020 at a joint press conference and a joint press briefing, DGISPR Major-General Babar Iftikhar and the then Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi unveiled a dossier containing “irrefutable evidence” of India’s sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram handed over the dossier to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
In its 27th report, dated February 3, 2021, and the 28th report, published in the recent past, the UN Security Council’s monitoring team for tracking terrorist groups confirmed Pakistan’s dossier. The reports focused on the global threat posed by Al-Qaeda, Daesh and their linked groups—drew attention to the increasing cross-border terrorist threat to Pakistan from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, operating from Afghan soil. In its new report on May 28, 2022, it once again highlighted the threat by the TTP which has conducted numerous deadly “cross-border” attacks and operations in Pakistan. Notably, almost 120 of Pakistan’s security forces were martyred this year in terrorist attacks mostly carried out by the TTP. These attacks compelled Pakistan to launch retaliatory air strikes, targeting the TTP hideouts across the border.
While the official entities engaged in negotiations are little concerned regarding the drastic consequences of accepting the TTP’s demands, this process might give rise to more complex conflicts. By following this policy of appeasement, Pakistan will risk allowing the TTP to regroup at home, giving a setback to the military operations against terrorism—TTP and other banned terror groups such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, IS-K, BLA, and their linked outfits which claimed responsibility for many terrorism-related assaults in Pakistan will benefit. Nevertheless, the negotiations with the TTP should be brought into mainstream discussion, and the Parliament must be taken into confidence. Nonetheless, it is hoped that Islamabad will not compromise with the TTP by yielding its hard-won dominance, thus losing in talks what it had won on the battleground.
It is notable that unlike other countries’ war against terrorism, Pakistan’s Armed Forces displayed unbelievable progress through the military operation Zarb-e-Azb—which started on June 15, 2014, against the militants in North Waziristan Agency and afterward extended to other tribal areas—has almost achieved its objectives, while the military operation Radd-ul-Fasaad continues successfully. Addressing the Defence Day and Martyrs Day ceremony on September 6, 2017, Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa stated: “The country passed through a very difficult phase during the past two decades…Our forces and nation have rendered sacrifices in the war against terrorism…Our houses, schools, and leaders were attacked. Efforts were made to weaken us internally.” Noting that more than 70,000 Pakistanis were martyred and injured in this war (till 2017), the army chief vowed to collectively fight this menace of terrorism. Earlier, showing the progress of the Zarb-e-Azb, the then Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Raheel Sharif said: “Terrorists have been cleared from their strongholds in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency and the fight now is moving into the last few pockets close to the Afghan border.” He laid emphasis on the “continuation of operations till the elimination of the last expected and probable terrorist groups and sanctuaries.”
In the recent past, terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s various provinces, especially Balochistan, show that India’s RAW and other intelligence agencies are destabilising Pakistan. These intelligence entities want to damage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is a part of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, as the US and India have already opposed this project. It appears as if TTP’s insurgents have lost major ground, and in severe frustration, they are trying to create some kind of so-called pressure on the government and the Armed Forces through some terror activities. In November 2020 at a joint press conference and a joint press briefing, DGISPR Major-General Babar Iftikhar and the then Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi unveiled a dossier containing “irrefutable evidence” of India’s sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram handed over the dossier to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
In its 27th report, dated February 3, 2021, and the 28th report, published in the recent past, the UN Security Council’s monitoring team for tracking terrorist groups confirmed Pakistan’s dossier. The reports focused on the global threat posed by Al-Qaeda, Daesh and their linked groups—drew attention to the increasing cross-border terrorist threat to Pakistan from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, operating from Afghan soil. In its new report on May 28, 2022, it once again highlighted the threat by the TTP which has conducted numerous deadly “cross-border” attacks and operations in Pakistan. Notably, almost 120 of Pakistan’s security forces were martyred this year in terrorist attacks mostly carried out by the TTP. These attacks compelled Pakistan to launch retaliatory air strikes, targeting the TTP hideouts across the border.
While the official entities engaged in negotiations are little concerned regarding the drastic consequences of accepting the TTP’s demands, this process might give rise to more complex conflicts. By following this policy of appeasement, Pakistan will risk allowing the TTP to regroup at home, giving a setback to the military operations against terrorism—TTP and other banned terror groups such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, IS-K, BLA, and their linked outfits which claimed responsibility for many terrorism-related assaults in Pakistan will benefit. Nevertheless, the negotiations with the TTP should be brought into mainstream discussion, and the Parliament must be taken into confidence. Nonetheless, it is hoped that Islamabad will not compromise with the TTP by yielding its hard-won dominance, thus losing in talks what it had won on the battleground.
