EDITORIAL: Increased TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) terrorism, its open threat to leaders of parties in the ruling coalition, and the Afghan government’s refusal to sort out the insurgent group’s high command holed up on its soil, have seemingly pushed the government to the point that, according to news reports, pre-emptive action is now effectively on the table.
Strangely, though, while announcing that the state was finally putting its foot down, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah also waved the carrot once again at the same terrorists, saying that the government was still willing to negotiate with militants that agreed to lay down their weapons and “surrender to the constitution”.
This is very confusing. The decision to go for the enemy’s jugular, as expressed in press statements by functionaries of the government, is appreciated. But yet another offer of talks shows that the government might not have learned the most important lesson from the last couple of years, when TTP used the window of negotiations to fool Islamabad and grow stronger only to attack the state and its people all over again.
How can anybody know for sure that the terrorists will not pull the same trick by giving up their rifles and grenades to settle back in the country and then just go back to their old ways? At this critical juncture, when law enforcement officers are being targeted every day, and TTP has made the country’s top-most politicians fair game as well, it is extremely important for the government not to adopt the old one-step-forward-two-steps-back approach.
The government must also realise that eliminating terrorists, at least the TTP brand, will create the kind of cross-border complications that have not existed for a while.
Last time they melted across the Durand Line and found welcome sanctuary in Afghanistan during the Karzai and Ghani administrations. But the Taliban agreed during talks in Doha to hold them to account once they returned to power.
That, unfortunately, has not happened. Instead, it was Afghanistan’s new regime that pushed Pakistan into pointless talks with TTP. And lately the Taliban leadership has responded to the Pakistani government’s concerns with very provocative statements of its own.
Now, for all intents and purposes, it’s clear that the fight will have to be taken to TTP to stop its sporadic attacks up and down the country. But since the Afghan government is not cooperating, and nothing short of pre-emptive action will get the job done, authorities must factor in increased friction on the western front as the military tightens the noose around the TTP high command.
It’s a good sign that the international community is standing by Pakistan for once in this long war, and there are already signs that statements of support from Washington are being echoed by Riyadh as well. The Chinese are also using their good offices to push Kabul into taking more meaningful action before Islamabad is forced to take matters into its own hands.
The only missing link in this complicated puzzle is political unity at home, which is a shame. Even as other countries are lining up in Pakistan’s favour, its own political elite is consumed with an all-or-nothing selfish fight for all the spoils of power.
PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) spokespersons should have known better than exploiting this security breakdown by implying that the Taliban leadership only trusted Imran Khan in power in Pakistan, hence the deadlock with Afghanistan.
It is the state of Pakistan and its people, not any particular political party or its supporters and sympathisers, that are at war with the same terrorists that killed more than 80,000 innocent people just a few years ago.
The Pakistani people will settle for nothing less than the “tremendous efforts against terrorism” that the interior minister promised at his press conference. And this time the enemy must not be allowed to live to fight another day.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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