ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office on Thursday “strongly” denied reports of talks with the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), saying “absolutely no dialogue” was taking place with the militant organization responsible for a series of recent high-profile attacks in the South Asian nation.
The FO statement came in response to media reports that Islamabad was holding negotiations with the TTP, or Pakistan Taliban, which were being mediated by the Afghan Taliban government in Kabul.
“Pakistan strongly denies such reports or speculation of any talks which are claimed to be taking place between Pakistan and the TTP,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters in a weekly media briefing.
“There is absolutely no dialogue taking place.”
She reiterated the demand that the interim Afghan government take “strong action” against TTP and other militants that Islamabad believes are using Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan, particularly against perpetrators of an assault this week in which 23 soldiers were killed in the country’s northwest on Tuesday. Kabul says it does not harbor militants.
The attack occurred in the remote district of Dera Ismail Khan on the edge of tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, the army said in a statement, adding that all six attackers who drove an explosive-laden truck into a military camp were killed in an ensuing battle.
In a statement, the Tahreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), believed to be an offshoot of the TTP and which has emerged recently and claimed several big bombings in recent months, said its militants carried out the attack to target the Pakistani army.
Pakistan has already issued a demarche to the Afghan interim government over Tuesday’s assault.
“Afghanistan must take strong action against perpetrators of this heinous attack and hand them over to Pakistan, along with the TTP leadership in Afghanistan,” the spokesperson said, adding that Pakistan had acknowledged the statement by the Afghan interim government that it would investigate the Dec. 12 assault.
“We also expect Afghanistan to take concrete and verifiable steps to prevent the use of Afghan soil by terrorist entities against Pakistan.”
Baloch said the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had also condemned the attack and underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers, and sponsors accountable and bring them to justice.
“They [members of the UNSC] have also urged all states to cooperate actively with the government of Pakistan, as well as all relevant authorities in this regard,” she added.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks in its northwestern and southwestern regions that border Afghanistan since the TTP called off its fragile truce with the government in Islamabad in November 2022.
The attacks prompted Islamabad in October to order the expulsion of all illegal foreigners, mostly Afghans, which was followed by a crackdown against them across the country.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans, many of whom had been living in Pakistan for decades, have since left the country.
In a strongly worded press conference last month, Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said Pakistan’s move to expel Afghans was a response to the unwillingness of the Taliban-led administration to act against militants using Afghanistan to carry out attacks in Pakistan.
The Pakistan army chief has also endorsed the deportation policy, citing security concerns and drains to the economy from the almost 3.7 million Afghans that have been living in Pakistan for decades.
