No peace talks without renouncing violence
For the government, how best to tackle terrorism is a question that should be preceded by the will to tackle it. However, the same is also true of the terrorists who insist they want a peace dialogue. But instead of waking the talk on their offer for talks, they, like so many times before, have started to renege from their word on one pretext or another. Delivering a blow to a joint effort for peace by a moot attended by 24 political parties, the TTP has laid bare its fangs for those who somehow still thought that peace could ensue out of an organisation whose very existence depends on violence.
The TTP has claimed that the APC, organised on a call by none other than ANP, is just a political stunt and not a sincere answer to their offer for peace talks. And why actually would they claim so? Mainly because of two reasons: one, the APC decided to hold talks conditionally with those who lay arms, renounced violence and submit to the law of the land. Second, one of the three guarantors the TTP had asked for the talks did not join the APC at all, thus leading to a fragmented approach in dealing with them. Imran Khan’s decision not to join the moot didn’t help the cause either. However, what trumps these reasons aside is the track record of militants with regards to past peace deals that they had made and reneged from with the government.
If the TTP were any serious, it would have shunned its violent ways but an assassination attempt on the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa yesterday leaves a hole in their soft yet wily façade. Feeling a mounting pressure by the military, the militants intentionally kept it out of their proposal for peace talks fearing it might not acquiesce to any leeway they could ask for. This was also a tactical move to keep the civil and khaki leadership potentially divided so as not to face a resistance offered by them both a united footing.
TTP’s threatening tone continues to haunt the government who despite its many efforts have not been able to cause a serious dent in the militants’ ideology. A post-2014 scenario might actually, and disturbingly, favour militant outfits, and with elections in the country on hand, militants find changing their tactics useful to their strategy. If they gain mainstream acceptance, make no mistake: that’s what they are aiming at, the end results could be a devastating for socio-politico-cultural aspects of the society. This is why the government must continue peace talks but only from a position of strength. It must get them to lay their arms, quit violence as a tool to get their way and accept the constitution and other laws.