Pakistan rejects TTP's talks offer following bitter experience in past, says report

Map of Pakistan; used for representational purpose. Pic/istock

Authorities in Pakistan have declined an offer from the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror outfit to resume talks, citing their previous negative experience with dialogue, a media report said on Tuesday.

The TTP, through various individual contacts, expressed its willingness to re-engage in talks in recent days but the government rejected the offer and instead urged the militants to surrender, The Express Tribune newspaper quoted sources as saying. The government last year engaged in talks with the proscribed TTP group, which has been fighting to impose the rule of Sharia across Pakistan, at the insistence of the Afghan Taliban government in Kabul.

A ceasefire was also announced as the two sides engaged in dialogue but the TTP unilaterally terminated the truce in November last year, a few days before the appointment of Gen Asim Munir as the new army chief of Pakistan.

The TTP subsequently increased attacks on police, security personnel, and government installations, with particular emphasis on the southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. A senior government official said that during the previous rounds of talks, Afghanistan's acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani was the mediator.

However, he did not hold the role of guarantor in those discussions. "We need solid guarantees," the senior official told the newspaper. "Negotiations will be meaningless without a solid guarantor. So when this offer was made it was rejected outright," he added.

The Pakistani authorities have made it explicitly clear to the Islamist militant group that individuals willing to surrender were welcome to do so, the official added.
The Express Tribune reported on Monday that Pakistan had told the interim Afghan government that it could only consider talking to the TTP if the terrorist outfit surrendered and laid down arms.

The current coalition government, since assuming power, has attributed the ongoing wave of terrorism in the country to the talks held between the then-ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and the TTP.

The Pakistani government has been 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.

Recent visits by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar to Kabul were also linked to this issue. During the Afghan foreign minister's visit to Pakistan, the matter was raised as well.

The senior official emphasised that the Afghan Taliban would not employ force against the TTP, and Pakistan had no intention of entering Afghanistan to dismantle TTP bases.

However, despite Pakistan's refusal to enter into peace talks with the militant group, the Afghan Taliban were still keen on the process of dialogue to kick-start.

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