The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) latest offer of peace talks is not entirely out of the blue; the outfit makes such offers occasionally, perhaps to test the waters if the latest spate of its terrorist activities has strengthened its position in negotiations with the Pakistan government. So no surprise then that the one made over the weekend aptly follows a deadly suicide bombing of worshippers at Hangu on Friday, a midnight assault on a security post in Lakki Marwwat and massacre of an 11-member family in an adjacent locality.
The death toll reaches nearly a hundred mark - a figure gruesome enough that the TPP felt was its 'position of strength' that it needs at the negotiation table. Even when peace is so much needed for the hapless residents of tribal areas in particular and all over Pakistan in general, the TTP is sadly mistaken if it thinks it can secure peace on its own terms. It is not a freedom struggle that the general masses in Pakistan should support it; it is a murderous drive to impose its peculiar ideology for which there are noat many takers. Naturally, there is no sign that the TTP is more popular today than the day before. The only progress that should do it proud is in the eyes of people of Pakistan it's a remorseless, thoughtless killing machine, and in the process it has killed more innocent fellow Muslim brothers and sisters than all other anti-Islam forces put together.
That being the backdrop we don't find the latest peace offer made by the TTP different from before, and we wouldn't be surprised if it goes unnoticed and un-responded. But that should not be the case. Even when the TTP is so much unreasonable in its argument and its preconditions are so much untenable there tends to obtain an ambience for initiation of a constructive peace dialogue with the outlawed outfit. That a part of the opposition leadership should agree to act as guarantors for implementation of the peace agreement if and when arrived at with the Pak Army is a precondition that is stillborn in its very inception. The TTP, therefore, must sit with the government, because it is only the government which can offer any guarantee, and not the opposition. Of late, the government has relented on its initial position, including the precondition that the TTP should surrender arms before coming to the peace table. And to insist that it would discuss peace with the army the TTP must know that while there can be limited cease-fire between the two sides for peace it has to initiate a dialogue with the government - which is quite feasible given the KP government's statement that "let us initiate dialogue and then all conditions can be discussed, including release of the Taliban prisoners".
The TTP must realise the fact that time is running out fast. Not only has its battle cry to revive medieval Islam in line with al Qaeda philosophy lost appeal, its military strength in the battleground too is under threat of erosion. The latest bout of fighting in the Tirah Valley has proved that a local challenge to its sway in the tribal areas fast emerging in the form of Ansarul Islam has the potential to pose it a serious challenge. Then the ongoing land-cum-air military operation has greatly broken its back. The fact is that the TTP and its affiliates are no more perceived as part of a global phenomenon and have no other reputation except being the heartless, mindless killers of fellow Muslims - though by mentioning the Mali situation as its concern the TTP spokesman has tried to rebuff that perception. All in all, over time the ground situation has morphed, throwing up new ground realities both for the government and the TTP. Imperceptibly but inexorably, the urge for peace is tiptoeing into the minds on both sides though public postures remain uncompromising. Let there be dialogue - there is no reason for peace not to dictate.
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