EDITORIAL: The remarks army chief Gen Asim Munir delivered at a recent meeting with tribal elders in Peshawar come as a great reassurance to people all across the country, especially those worst-affected by the self-styled Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists’ violence in the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Noting that the surge in terrorism in the recent past is an effort on the part of the terrorists to get the abortive talks reinitiated, he ruled out any such possibility and said: “there is no option for these terrorists except to submit to the writ of the State of Pakistan before they are decimated.”
That should also give a sense of relief to people like the JUI-F (Jamiat-i-Ulema Pakistan–Fazlur Rehman group) MNA from South Waziristan, Jamaluddin, who survived the deadly July 20 suicide bombing at the party convention in Bajaur which left 60 people dead and more than 100 wounded.
Speaking in the National Assembly last Friday he seethed that the militants were brought back from Afghanistan to be left to their own devices. He demanded the government and the “responsible authorities” take a clear stand on the issue; otherwise, he warned, “the tribal people will protect themselves”.
The sources of trouble are not only the militants who taking advantage of the ceasefire agreed upon by the TTP and Pakistan in June 2022 in the Afghan Taliban-mediated talks (called off last November), returned, ostensibly, to peacefully resettle into local communities, and used the opportunity to regroup and start attacking soldiers and civilians alike.
Leaders of this terrorist outfit and most of its rank and file are still ensconced in safe havens in Afghanistan, hosted by that country’s new rulers to whose supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada they pay allegiance. It is a wilful violation of the commitment the Afghan Taliban gave the international community under the Doha Agreement not to allow any group to use their territory to launch terrorist attacks against any country.
They try to evade any unpleasant consequences, though, by claiming that all TTP militants are inside Pakistan. There is enough verifiable evidence as well as UN mentoring reports that lend credence to the concern the Army chief expressed while talking of sanctuaries available to the TTP militants and the freedom of action they enjoy on Afghan soil. For understandable reasons, so far Pakistan has maintained restraint but is running out of patience.
Unless the interim Afghan government stops protecting its TTP friends, one often discussed option for Pakistan would be to resort to drone strikes against its enemies using Afghan territory to launch cross-border attacks.
In that the international community, already wary of the TTP’s close working relations with various terrorist groups, such as IS-K and Al Qaeda, will be on its side.
It can only be hoped the Kabul government will realise the gravity of the situation and extend full cooperation to Islamabad-Rawalpindi in dealing with the threat these terrorists pose to the security of this country and safety of its people.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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