ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told an international media outlet on Thursday the country could witness a surge in terrorist attacks in the coming months, though he maintained the government was trying to deal with armed groups involved in such violent activities.
The country’s eastern city of Lahore witnessed a bomb blast in a crowded market last week that killed three people and injured 33 others.
Prior to that, militant also targeted police personnel in the federal capital that made the interior minister speculate that Pakistan was witnessing the reemergence of terrorism.
Speaking to BBC Urdu in an exclusive interview, he said sleeper cells of terrorist organizations in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces had become active once again.
“There is a fear that terrorist incidents can increase in the next two months,” he said, “but we will be able to deal with this fresh wave of violence.”
Ahmed said Pakistan had developed a better intelligence gathering mechanism against militant groups after fighting with them for two decades, adding that law enforcement agencies were doing their best to deal with the outfits posing the threat of violence.
“Action is taken [against militant groups] as soon as information about them is received,” he continued.
In response to a question about the resurgence of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the minister said the new administration in Kabul was playing a constructive role. He added the Afghan Taliban had acted as mediators during Pakistan’s negotiations with the TTP leadership.
“The Afghan Taliban were acting like a bridge [between the two sides],” he said. “They were advising the TTP not to launch attacks [against Pakistan]. They [the Afghan Taliban] have a commitment with us that Afghanistan’s soil will not be used for terrorist attacks against Pakistan.”
“However, the TTP militants cross the border and carry out attacks,” he added. “We keep informing the Afghan government about these attacks and action is also taken against the terrorists involved in these attacks.”
The minister said it seemed that even the administration in Kabul could not control the TTP while clarifying that Pakistani government was no longer negotiating with the militant network.
“After the violation of the ceasefire, the door for talks has almost closed,” he maintained. “The agreement was violated by the TTP itself. We talked to them a few times after that, but it did not yield any results.”
He informed that TTP leadership objected to border fencing between Pakistan and Afghanistan while demanding the release of prisoners convicted by local courts.
“It was not possible to release such dangerous prisoners,” he added. “Hence, we could not accept the TTP demands.”
Ahmed said Pakistan had offered a chance to TTP militants to surrender and accept the country’s constitution, but they chose to violate the ceasefire agreement instead.