A perception is being formed among Afghanistan’s neigbours that the Taliban want to use various terrorist groups operating from their soil for seeking advantages from these countries, instead of taking action against them. The perception was strengthened when a Taliban spokesman advised Pakistan to make peace with the TTP which has killed thousands of Pakistanis over the years including 134 children in APS Peshawar. Instead of pressing the Afghan Taliban to act against the notorious network, the PTI govt is willing to welcome it to Pakistan. In response, a TTP faction led by commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur has announced 20 days’ ceasefire in North Waziristan. It cost the government an estimated $1.9 billion and hundreds of lives lost to get the district cleansed of the TTP .
The name of TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud was put by the UN on its Sanctions list in July this year for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of entities associated” with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. Only days later the UN Security Council (UNSC) put the TTP on its international anti-terrorism sanctions list. Both actions were praised by the PTI government. Its sudden decision to offer amnesty to the group would raise many eyebrows and cause serious problems.
Everything about the government’s talks with the TTP remains opaque. There is no clarification about who is talking to which ones of the butchers’ brigade which has recently issued a stark warning to the national media, asking them to refrain from calling them a “terrorist outfit” or else be treated as enemies. How will the government treat those involved in heinous crimes like killing APS children? What are those being promised amnesty required to do in return for the favour? Why weren’t the opposition parties taken into confidence about the talks? Was China consulted, as that country wants those involved in the Dasu killings to be punished? Was the USA taken into confidence as the TTP was also linked to an attempted bombing in Times Square, New York, last year?
The least that the government needs to do now is to take the issue to Parliament. The offer of amnesty is likely to be interpreted otherwise as an act of appeasement.
