EDITORIAL: It is astounding that former prime minister Imran Khan still thinks that the best way to deal with the so-called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has declared a war on this State, is through engagement.
In his speech on Tuesday to a seminar organised in Islamabad by his party’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government, he said his government had planned to resettle at least 5,000 TTP fighters and their families in the erstwhile tribal areas with the help of Afghan Taliban. But the plan remained unrealised because Sindh and Balochistan refused to give 3 percent of their National Finance Commission share for the uplift of the tribal districts.
Furthermore, he stated — regretfully, of course — that after his removal from power the federal government stopped cooperation (with the Afghan Taliban hosting ‘peace negotiations’ with the TTP.) Assertions such as these have earned him the epithet ‘Taliban Khan’ though he seems to be offended by it.
It needs to be recalled that when his government announced the plan, believed to be initiated by the establishment, to negotiate with the TTP terrorists and bring back its militants from Afghanistan to be integrated into society it was opposed by major political parties and civil society. Understandably so, since those men have the blood on their hands of some 80,000 Pakistanis, including 132 children massacred in the December 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.
Besides, those who had ousted the TTP from its previous base of operations inside Pakistan in the Zarb-e-Azb military operation had warned that like a number of treaties it had signed and reneged on, it would not honour any new agreement. The result of ‘peace talks’, which went on for several months via civil and military representatives, tribal jirgas, and religious clerics is before us. Many militants — perhaps 5,000 — have been allowed to return from Afghanistan. They were supposed to disarm and get settled. Instead, they have been doing what they have been trained to do: committing violent crimes, including murder, intimidation, and kidnappings for ransom in Swat and tribal districts of KP, prompting local populations to stage protest demonstrations against their presence.
Little is known about what transpired in the Afghan Taliban brokered talks that ended in a stalemate other than that the TTP took them as a sign of weakness on part of the State and made the absurd demand that the merger of tribal districts with KP be reversed and the security forces depart from there. In other words, these areas should be placed under the control of TTP terrorists.
Taking advantage of the ‘return home’ policy several of them in leadership positions have already set up operational bases in North and South Waziristan (where Khan had planned to settle them), and have been launching attacks on the security forces as well as civilians in KP, and as per a recent announcement “wherever” and “whenever.” Imran Khan surely is aware of all these details and the security threat these violent extremists pose to this State and society. He owes an explanation to the people as to why is he still talking about settling rather than defeating the TTP terrorists?
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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