As the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) remains undeterred on its peace march to South Waziristan Agency (SWA) to protest against US drone strikes, a hitherto unknown Taliban faction on Friday warned the party against holding the rally tomorrow.
The group “Mujahideen-e-Jaishul Khilafa” (MJK) on Friday distributed pamphlets in Tank district, warning the people against participating in the march and threatening of “dire consequences”. The pamphlets, written in Urdu, warned the anti-drone demonstrators against entering SWA, while holding them responsible for any untoward incident they may face in the area.
The warning comes a day after the political administration of the SWA refused to give permission to the rally. The SWA administration is currently working out the ways and means to block the anti-drone peace march on the boundary between the districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank.
Meanwhile, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan denied that the Taliban had offered security to the PTI rally. “Imran Khan is holding the so-called peace march for political point scoring,” Ihsan said, adding that “our mujahideen are not that dispensable that we deploy them to protect a secular and western person.”
However, the approach of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government appears different than its stated policy. Despite its verbal opposition to the peace march from Islamabad to SWA, the Awami National Party (ANP) government is likely to quietly give way to the rally instead of countering it with force. The KP government is laying maximum emphasis on maintaining law and order situation.
KP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said the government had neither banned political activities in past, nor was it intending to in future. But he added that it would be better if PTI chief Imran Khan marches towards North Waziristan Agency, which is more affected by drone strikes. “If marches could stop drone strikes, we would have been organising much bigger ones than Imran Khan’s,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, KP Home and Tribal Affairs Department has announced that the foreign activists accompanying the march would not be allowed in the area. An official in the department said that entry into southern areas of the province and the tribal belt required a No Objection Certificate (NOC), and so far the PTI had not contacted the department to obtain the NOC.
Taliban faction warns PTI against holding ‘peace march’
