Pakistan’s policy seems a confused one regarding its dealings with the outlawed TTP that “encourages” the banned group to operate, said Tariq Suleman, a senior research fellow at Bloomsbury Pakistan.
“The banned TTP comprises Pakistani nationals, who possess arms,” he said on Aaj News show Rubaroo on Sunday. “Nobody other than the state has the right to have arms. We should only negotiate with the group to demand that they decommission their arms.”
Suleman dismissed any distinction between ‘good Taliban’ and ‘bad Taliban’.
“There is no such thing as good and bad Taliban. They have similar visions, strategies and objectives. It will be difficult to deal with them when we have such views in mind,” he said.
Former ambassador to Afghanistan Mansoor Ahmad Khan claimed that the terrorists and sleeper cells of outlawed TTP had been present in the border areas of Pakistan for a long time.
“The TTP have shelters and camps in Afghanistan, from where they get cross-border support,” he added.
A peace deal with the banned TTP was reached in past with the help of the Afghan Taliban government, he said. But the agreement with the banned TTP did not result in anything meaningful, the ex-envoy to Afghanistan added.
“The defence minister and Pak army released strong statements over the Zhob terror attack. The statement also hinted toward the involvement of Afghan migrants in the attacks,” Khan said.
He is of the view that if Pakistan takes action against those Afghan citizens, it will create issues in the bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “We should carefully move forward in this matter”
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Religious Harmony Maulana Tahir Ashrafi said that a ‘red line’ is crossed after the Zhob terror attack, which is why the army chief and defence minister had issued statements.
“Our leadership has been showing constraint despite several such attacks. We wanted to solve these issues through dialogues and it is still our first priority,” he added.
Responding to a question regarding the allegations of an alliance between PTI and Isreal, Ashrafi said that the country has never passed such statements on the internal politics of Pakistan.
He is of the view that Israel’s statement over the alleged human rights violations of the PTI has fueled the rumours of its alliance with Isreal.
However, Khan and Suleman both are in agreement that the statement is a universal periodic review during a UN Human Rights Council meeting. Suleman said that the statement has no value in domestic politics and should be taken as such.
Khan said that Pakistan should react to the statement responsibly and state that no one is allowed to interfere in the internal matters of the country.
