Militants are dictating their terms better than the government
A high level meeting presided over by the prime minister has decided to continue dialogue with the TTP but make it more meaningful by adhering to a formalised agenda. The purpose behind initiating talks with the outlawed TTP was to put an end to the ongoing terrorist attacks. There was however no respite to the attacks either during the so called ceasefire or afterwards. This month alone there were two major attacks resulting in double digit mortalities and several others where less than ten people died. Newspapers on Monday carried reports of an IED blast which left three security personnel including an army officer dead in Waziristan. In Peshawar, militants fired two rockets which exploded within the airport. In Bara threats from a Taliban group forced families to migrate to safer areas. In a third major attack in a week in Karachi, three children died in a madrassah blast while several others were injured. In Sadiqabad a low-intensity explosion under the railway track injured the driver and his assistant. A report in an English daily highlighted the issue of the migration of businessmen from Peshawar under threat of kidnapping for ransom to other parts of the country and in some cases out of the country.
What the committee appointed by the government has done, despite the good intentions of its members, is to put the state of Pakistan on an equal footing with the TTP. What is more, it allowed the militants to dictate the agenda. They have been allowed to get away with some of the most horrendous attacks, including the beheading of 23 troops, on one plea or another. The TTP had initially called into question, totally without reason, the status of the three high profile civilian prisoners on the plea that they belonged to parties with which the TTP was in a state of war, implying that they were in its custody. By sharing a video with the media the interior ministry has suggested that they might not be in TTP’s custody. While Shahidullah Shahid insists that the Taliban wouldn’t be waging a war against the government if they followed law or a constitution other than Islamic Sharia, the government’s negotiators claim the TTP is willing to hold talks within the parameters of the constitution.
There is no use of talks if attacks or kidnappings by the militants were to continue. The government committee needs to tell the TTP plainly that talks can only be held on a single item agenda of stopping all attacks. What is more, the Taliban have to deter other militant groups also from launching attacks from inside the tribal areas. The committee has no authority whatsoever to hold talks on issues like what kind of laws the country is to practice as the subject comes strictly under the purview of the Parliament.