Nowhere near peace with the militants
The attacks by militants continue unabated. Those being targeted are policemen as well as common civilians. The incidents of kidnapping by ransom have sharply increased. Even in Punjab which was supposed to enjoy immunity from such attacks, killings and abductions by the militants have now become common. There is a spurt in bank heists all over the country leading many to wonder if the militants are behind the daredevil dacoities. Bordering tribal area, KP has received more attention from the terrorists than any other province. Reports appear every other day about killings and kidnappings in Peshawar. The new wave of shootings in Karachi indicates that the ongoing operation in the mega city has hit snags. The government takes recourse to the excuse that as none of the Taliban groups takes responsibility for the attacks, it doesn’t know whom to hit.
Ch Nisar went into hibernation soon after the failure of the talks between the government’s committee with the TTP Shura on March 27. The Shura had put up unrealistic demands amounting to preconditions for the continuation of ceasefire. It had demanded the release of hundreds of its prisoners and wanted the government to direct the army to vacate Makin and Ladha in South Waziristan to create a demilitarised peace zone for continuing the so-called dialogue. On its part the Shura had refused to take any reciprocal action after the government released a number of its prisoners. The way the interior ministry had released the prisoners without consulting the army had added to the civil-military friction without bringing peace any nearer.
While continuing to insist that the talks have not failed, Ch Nisar has done nothing to stop the ongoing attacks. The strong criticism by Senators from the Opposition and Treasury benches on Tuesday led interior minister to call another meeting with the TTP negotiators while what the Senators had called for was action rather than what they called ‘dialogue circus’. Senator M Hamza questioned the government’s logic of continuing parleys with the outlawed TTP despite there being no let-up in attacks. He also expressed concern over the government’s failure to recover the kidnapped sons of Yousuf Raza Gilani and Salmaan Taseer despite knowing where they were being held in the country’s tribal areas.
It was announced after the meeting between the government and TTP nominees that the ceasefire would hold. For how long it would remain in force was not however revealed. The two committees have jointly fathered a subcommittee for recording each other’s complaints. A sense of uncertainty would persist with anonymous militants continuing to kill, abduct and indulge in looting banks. It is time the interior minister focused on internal security instead of the wild goose chase called talks with the Taliban.
The political mathematics of this is that Imran Khan got a lot of votes in the last general elections, about 7.9 million, and Nawaz Sharif is scared that he will whip up a lot of sentiments if ever there is physical action against the Taliban, which Imran will do, no matter what the national interest demands. That mathematics is unlikely to change and so we are never likely to see all out action against the Taliban.
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