Tackling terrorism with negotiations
Ever since the present government assumed office it has stuck to its position of resolving the issue of terrorism and militancy through negotiations. While keen to seek an end to the drone strikes, it has failed to persuade the TTP to halt the ongoing terrorist attacks on common people and personnel of the LEAs. It has also done little to stop the increasing incidents of kidnappings by the terrorists for ransom or for release of their activists. Instead of ensuring the security of life to the people, Ch Nisar is keener to provide assurances to the killer gangs that no army action was underway against the Taliban in North Waziristan as the government’s first priority is to engage them in dialogue. Nisar could have very well said that it was his government’s only choice.
Important questions raised by the critics of this abject surrender to the TTP remain unanswered. The interior minister is yet to reveal which of the three dozen militant groups are willing to hold talks as well as the demands they are making and what the government expects from them in return. The official TTP spokesmen, both under Hakimullah Mehsud and Fazlullah, have consistently rejected the constitution and the democratic system demanding these to be replaced by the Sharia – of their preference. They have never made a secret of their desire to turn Pakistan into a springboard for jihad against India and the Western world. As late as a fortnight back, the Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said, the TTP does not accept international borders as they were imposed by the West. His organization, he said, wouldn’t talk to the PML-N administration which it doesn’t consider as independent. A little earlier on December 18, Shahid had said: “Like previous governments this one is a puppet of the United States. It’s powerless and dollar-hungry.” While the government is unwilling to reveal the demands made by the TTP, Shahid has gone public on them. In September he had put up two demands that had to be accepted prior to any possible talks, i.e. release of all militant prisoners and evacuation of the army from the tribal areas.
Ch Nisar is never tired of justifying the talks on the ground that these were mandated by the APC. It is high time to call another APC to apprise it of the demands being made by the TTP. May be some of the parties will advise against holding talks on these terms.