ISLAMABAD: Islamabad was willing to negotiate peace with the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), if the proscribed group accepted Pakistan's law and constitution, Pakistani interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Saturday.
The offer comes days after the militant group claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on police officials in the heart of the federal capital, Islamabad. A policeman was killed and two others were injured when TTP militants opened fire on them on Monday.
The TTP is a separate movement from the Afghan Taliban and has fought for years to overthrow the government in Islamabad and rule with its own brand of Islamic Shariah law.
Last month, the group declared an end to a month-long cease-fire arranged with the aid of the Afghan Taliban, accusing the Pakistan government of breaching terms including a prisoner release agreement and the formation of negotiating committees.
“Our doors are open [for talks] if they [TTP] want to come under our law, constitution and flag,” Ahmed said at a news conference in Islamabad on Saturday.
“If they [TTP] will fight, we will fight them back,” he declared.
Pakistan has seen a series of small-scale attacks targeting policemen, security forces and civilians in recent weeks, after the breakdown of talks in December between the government and the TTP.
The minister said militant attacks in the country had registered an increase of 35-38 percent since August last year, but these incidents “cannot shatter our morale.”
Pakistan's interior ministry on Saturday requested all law enforcement agencies and provincial authorities through a notification to exercise “extreme vigilance” and be alert to deal with any untoward situation. The notification for additional security measures was issued “in view of recent terrorist attack in Anarkali Bazar, Lahore, and threat posed by activities of anti-state elements.”
At least two people were killed and 26 others injured in Lahore's famous Anarkali bazaar, a crowded neighborhood comprising small shops packed into narrow streets, on Thursday. A newly formed militant group, the Baloch Nationalist Army, claimed responsibility for the blast in a Twitter post. The group was formed earlier this month after the merger of two small separatist groups — the Balochistan Republican Army and the United Baloch Army.
Ahmed said some small groups were carrying out sporadic "terror activities" since the Afghan Taliban came into power in August 2021 by ousting Afghanistan's American-backed government.
The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are separate entities, although their ideologies overlap, as does their training. While Pakistan has been fighting local Taliban militants, it has long been accused of supporting the Afghan Taliban, an accusation Islamabad has vehemently denied.
Since the Taliban takeover of Kabul, Islamabad has tried to engage with the TTP for peace in Pakistan. The two sides had also announced a month-long ceasefire in November 2021.
“The [Afghan] Taliban were talking with the TTP, but their conditions and demands were not acceptable for being too harsh,” Ahmed said.
He accused the Pakistani Taliban of violating the truce, but was quick to welcome the Afghan Taliban’s role in peace talks.
"After the Taliban takeover of Kabul," the minister said, "if some small group wants to create an atmosphere of terrorism [in Pakistan], they will be crushed."
