The Taliban said in a statement that the TTP has not declared a ceasefire anywhere so the TTP Mujahideen must continue their operations wherever they are.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said in an interview with Turkish media channel TRT yesterday that his government was holding peace talks with some groups of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) through the Afghan Taliban. However, Imran Khan did not specify with which groups these talks are being held and since when and on what terms these talks are being held.
After Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement, some in the country are welcoming the government’s move and some observers believe that the government has held talks with extremist organizations on various occasions in the past, which later Failed.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had earlier taken a stand on the issue of talks with President Arif Ali and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
The TTP said in a statement to the media at the time that after Imran Khan’s statement regarding talks with us, some local sources in Waziristan reported that the TTP had called a 20-day ceasefire due to the talks. Has been announced. However, a statement issued by the TTP to the media said that the TTP is an organized movement that is not a victim of factionalism and is only a collective policy of the movement.
The Taliban said in a statement that the TTP has not declared a ceasefire anywhere, so the TTP Mujahideen must continue their operations wherever they are. Now it is not clear from the news regarding the talks and ceasefire by Prime Minister Imran Khan which group Imran Khan is talking about.
But some sources claim that the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group in Waziristan has declared a ceasefire and according to journalists reporting on extremist organizations, the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group no longer has any connection with the TTP but Has its own separate group.
Independent Urdu has contacted analysts to find out how useful the government’s negotiations with extremist organizations have been in the past, and which extremist organizations the government may have negotiated with. Is talking
Rifatullah Orakzai has been associated with BBC Urdu for almost 15 years and has covered Pakistani military operations against militants in Swat, Waziristan, and other parts of the country.
Negotiations with extremist organizations at the government level are not new but have been going on since 2004 when the government held talks with Naik Mohammad in Waziristan, but the agreement lasted for a few months,” Rafatullah told The Independent Urdu. It was implemented but then it ended.
According to Rifatullah, a peace agreement was signed with former TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud in 2006, but it too expired a few months later and the TTP continued its operations. A similar agreement was reached in 2008 when Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai was the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and for the first time during his tenure, the army entered the tribal districts.
Ali Mohammad Jan had resigned following the deal, Rifat said, adding that the governor had resigned at the time allegedly because the government had failed to deliver on its promises to the militant group. Was not fulfilled and thus the agreement did not last long, but no concrete evidence of this came to light at that time.
Then an agreement was reached in Swat in 2009 when the Awami National Party was in power in the province and the PPP was in power in the federation Rafat said. That agreement lasted for some time, but the Swat TTP, led by Fazlullah at the time, violated the agreement by moving from Swat to Buner district and strengthening itself.
I remember for the first time the leaders of the Awami National Party started using the word ‘terrorist’ for the TTP he said. Similarly, an agreement was reached with Sufi Muhammad, head of Tehreek-e-Nifaz Shariat-e-Mohammadi, but later Sufi Muhammad refused to abide by the constitution of Pakistan, saying that he did not abide by the judicial system of Pakistan and thus that agreement was broken. ۔ ‘
However, Rifatullah believes that the TTP’s morale has risen sharply at the moment, due in part to the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of the government in Afghanistan, as he believes the Afghan Taliban have pushed the United States to Removed from
According to Rifat, the second reason for the strength is the strong relationship between the Afghan Taliban and the TTP because they are not separated from each other and if anyone thinks of ending the TTP, it will be to the detriment of the Afghan Taliban and if the Afghan If the Taliban are harmed, so will the TTP.
The main reason for the failure of negotiations in the past was that the government and the Taliban were on two extremes Rafat said. The government has always called on extremist organizations to surrender and recognize the constitution and law of the state of Pakistan, but the TTP was unwilling to accept this. The TTP’s position has been that if it had accepted the constitution and law of the state of Pakistan, why would they have taken up arms because, according to the TTP, their aim is to change the system and enforce the Sharia system.
That is why there are ground realities that the TTP is talking about enforcing a ‘sharia and Islamic system’ and they do not even believe in the constitution of the state of Pakistan but the democratic system,” he said. So the big question is how negotiations can be successful in such a situation and it seems to be difficult to resolve.
Are these talks possible through the Afghan Taliban?
In response, Okarazai said The Afghan Taliban can play a big role in this, but they can also go to some extent because the Afghan Taliban benefit from the success of the TTP. To some extent, they can be brought to the table but to what extent they can agree to the terms will be clear in the future.
According to Rifat, the government needs to get a response from the people in this negotiation process as thousands of people have been killed by the TTP and there is hatred among the people against them.
Since yesterday, we have been seeing a strong reaction from some quarters to Imran Khan’s statement, so it will be a challenge for the government to take the political leadership forward on this decision Rafat said. Will So far, it does not seem that the ruling party has taken the country’s political leadership into confidence in this decision.
Which group are negotiating with?
Rasool Dawar hails from Waziristan and is associated with Geo News in Peshawar. Rasool Dawar has been reporting on extremist organizations in various areas, including Waziristan, for the past 12 years. Dawar said that according to his information, the government was holding talks with the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group in North Waziristan.
He said that Hafiz Gul Bahadur no longer had any connection with the TTP and that he was running a separate group called ‘Shura Mujahideen North Waziristan’ which was not very strong. He further said that this group is considered as ‘pro-government and it is not very active in Waziristan and does not carry out operations there.
Rasool Dawar said As far as the TTP is concerned, it is not ready for talks. And according to TTP sources, he is not ready for talks because whenever there has been talking of talks in the past, an operation has been launched against him and the TTP still fears that Negotiating with the government is inviting another operation
One of the proofs that talks with the TTP have not started is that there have been about five terrorist attacks in Waziristan since the news of the ceasefire came out,” Dawar said. So this means that the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group has announced a finer ban but the TTP is still continuing its operations.
Rafat Orakzai says that strict conditions for Taliban talks will not be acceptable to the government. The same issue came up in 2014 and the strict conditions of the TTP active in the tribal districts and various factions are also a reason for the failure of the talks. Were.
When the government began negotiations with the TTP in 2014, the problem was that the TTP was talking about implementing a sharia system.
This was stated in February 2014 by a committee formed by the then Taliban, which included Maulana Samiul Haq, Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid, and Professor Ibrahim. The committee had said in a press conference that the TTP was not in favor of even one percent negotiations without the demand for a sharia system.
Maulana Samiul Haq had said at the time that some factions may agree without enforcing Shariah but some factions will never accept it and negotiations will not be successful.
Syed Irfan Ashraf is a professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Peshawar and has written various dissertations on extremism in Pakistan. When Irfan Ashraf was asked why negotiations have always failed in the past, he replied that it also involved some state policies which made extremist organizations so strong that the state-controlled them. Has failed to do so and is now in talks with them.
He said that another reason for the conditions is that the TTP imposes very strict conditions due to which the government is not ready to accept these conditions and thus the talks fail and a military operation is launched. That has happened in the past.
Irfan Ashraf says I think neither the Taliban nor the government has started talks yet but the pressure or suggestion has been given by the Afghan Taliban that the government of Pakistan should negotiate with the TTP but that is Pakistan. Wants TTP to stay in Pakistan peacefully with arms but TTP is not ready to accept that
