PESHAWAR: A day after Prime Minister Imran Khan told an international news channel his administration was in talks with some factions of the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the militant network denied any split within its ranks and ruled out cessation of hostilities against the country.
In an interview with TRT World on Friday, Khan said some groups within the militant conglomerate were willing to negotiate for peace and reconciliation, adding that the government was willing to forgive them once they laid down their arms.
The prime minister’s statement, which was widely quoted in local and international media, was followed by reports that a TTP district shura in Waziristan had announced a 20-day cease-fire and its members would not attack the Pakistani security forces.
However, the top leadership of the militant network said it was not looking for a peace agreement with the Pakistani authorities.
“Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has never announced a cease-fire,” its spokesperson, Muhammad Khurasani, said in a statement. “TTP fighters should continue their attacks wherever they are.”
Khurasani described TTP as an “organized movement,” saying there were “no fissures or factions within the group.”
“The movement has a collective policy which no one can deviate from,” he added.
Last month, President Arif Alvi and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced the government was willing to offer amnesty to TTP members if they renounced violence and adhered to the country’s constitution.
However, the militant network stated in response it was proud of its “struggle” and was not seeking forgiveness from anyone.
The Pakistani prime minister, who said he did not believe in military solutions, continued to hope during his recent interview that a deal was likely come out of his government’s negotiations with the militant network in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain also maintained in a video message that repentant TTP members should get a chance to return to “normal life.”
A security analyst, Saleem Khan, told Arab News the government was also negotiating a peace deal with the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group in North Waziristan, though he added the faction was never a part of the Pakistani Taliban.
He maintained that these talks were complicated since most of the armed groups in the territory were sympathetic to TTP and had pledged allegiance to the leader of the banned group, Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud.
“There are complications in the negotiations because they [the government] are holding talks with Hafiz Gul Bahadur while the main entity is Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” he said. “Unless they address the TTP challenge, talks with Hafiz Gul Bahadur will not help. In any case, his faction did not cause too much trouble to the government in the past.”
A conglomerate of several armed factions, TTP was banned soon after its emergence in Pakistan’s tribal areas in 2007 since it started killing Pakistani civilians and security forces.
Inspired by Al Qaeda ideology, it targeted the army headquarters in Rawalpindi and massacred more than 100 children at a school in Peshawar.
The network also took responsibility for shooting Malala Yousafzai, who later became the world’s youngest Nobel laureate, in her hometown, Swat, for advocating girls’ education.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan dismisses reports of ceasefire, denies internal divisions
https://arab.news/2ekkh
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan dismisses reports of ceasefire, denies internal divisions
- The proscribed militant entity issued a statement after PM Khan said his administration was negotiating with its factions for peace, reconciliation
- TTP called itself an ‘organized movement,’ saying it had a collective policy which no one could deviate from
Pakistan says nine militants killed in security operations in northwest
- The intelligence-based operations were conducted in Tank and Lakki Marwat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Military says the counterterrorism campaign is being pursued under the framework of the National Action Plan
PESHAWAR: Security forces in Pakistan said on Saturday they killed nine militants belonging to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in two intelligence-based operations in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistan refers to fighters of the TTP, an umbrella group of various armed factions, as “khwarij,” a term from early Islamic history used to describe an extremist sect that rebelled against authority. The military also alleges the group receives arms and funding from the Indian government, a charge New Delhi denies.
The two operations were carried out on Dec. 5 in the volatile districts of Tank and Lakki Marwat, according to a statement from the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
“On reported presence of khwarij, an intelligence-based operation was conducted by the Security Forces in Tank District,” the statement said. “During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij location and after an intense fire exchange, seven khwarij were sent to hell.”
“Another intelligence-based operation was conducted in Lakki Marwat District,” it added. “In ensuing fire exchange, two more khwarij were effectively neutralized by the security forces.”
ISPR said weapons and ammunition were recovered from the militants, whom it described as “Indian sponsored” and accused of involvement in attacks on security personnel, law enforcement agencies and civilians.
It said follow-up “sanitization operations” were under way as part of the country’s counterterrorism campaign under Azm-e-Istehkam, approved by the Federal Apex Committee of the National Action Plan, which aims to eliminate what it called foreign-supported militant threats in the country.
