Pak rejects TTP`s talks offer following bitter experience in past: Report
Officials in Pakistan Rejected an offer from the outlaw Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to resume talks, citing its past negative experience with the terror outfit, a media report said on Tuesday.
The Express Tribune newspaper quoted sources as saying that the TTP expressed its desire to rejoin the talks in recent days through various personal contacts but the government rejected the offer and instead asked the militants to surrender. Appealed. The government last year held talks with the banned TTP group, which is fighting to impose Sharia rule across Pakistan at the insistence of the Afghan Taliban government in Kabul.
A ceasefire was also announced during talks between the two sides but the TTP unilaterally ended the ceasefire in November last year, days before the appointment of General Asim Munir as Pakistan’s new army chief.
The TTP subsequently increased attacks on police, security personnel and government institutions, with a particular emphasis on the southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. A senior government official said that during the previous round of talks, Afghanistan’s Acting Home Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani was the mediator.
However, he did not play the role of guarantor in those discussions. “We need solid guarantees,” a senior official told the newspaper. “Without a concrete guarantor negotiations would be futile. So when the offer was made it was rejected outright,” he added.
The official added that Pakistani authorities have made it abundantly clear to the Islamic militant group that those willing to surrender are welcome to do so.
The Express Tribune reported on Monday that Pakistan has told the interim Afghan government that it can consider talks with the TTP only if the militant outfit surrenders and lays down its arms.
The current coalition government has attributed the wave of terrorism in the country after assuming power to the talks between the then ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Govt and TTP
The Pakistani government is urging the Afghan Taliban to take action against the TTP. As part of this effort, the Kabul government has detained or deported several TTP leaders.
The recent visits of Defense Minister Khawaja Asif and Minister of State for External Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar to Kabul are also linked to the same issue. This matter was also raised during the visit of the Afghan Foreign Minister to Pakistan.
The senior official stressed that the Afghan Taliban would not use force against the TTP, and that Pakistan had no intention of entering Afghanistan to destroy TTP bases.
However, despite Pakistan’s refusal to enter into peace talks with the militant group, the Afghan Taliban were still eager to start the negotiation process.
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