With no let up in their murderous stance, the
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Hakeemullah Mehsud has unleashed another verbal assault on the government for its alleged non-serious attitude towards peace talks. Laced with stern warnings and a harsh tone, Hakeemullah Mehsud has said in an interview to the BBC that the government is not serious about conducting peace negotiations with the TTP. Since no personal contact has so far been made with the group for talks, Mehsud said, and whatever has been said was done through the media, this reflects a non-serious approach by the government. This claim came a day before three coordinated attacks in three provinces of Pakistan occurred on Thursday, revealing the real intent of the TTP vis-à-vis holding peace talks. The governments in the Centre and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, keeping to their electioneering slogans, wanted talks instead of any military operation. If the TTP were serious about negotiations, why did not they show it through their behaviour? It was a golden opportunity for them when the ruling parties in the Centre and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wanted to give them an opening. Instead of showing a positive response, the TTP intensified their attacks over the last 3-4 months since the elections. Even though the TTP has attempted to distance itself from ‘new’ groups that emerged and claimed responsibility for these attacks, this subterfuge is not credible. Talks, difficult as they inherently are because of the TTP’s maximalist demands, cannot proceed without at least a complete halt to terrorism. Hakeemullah Mehsud demands that the government should initiate talks through a tribal jirga, but does not care to spell out what would be the talking points between the two parties. This leads to the suspicion that all this TTP talk about talks is a smokescreen for their original demands, which include that Pakistan should be ruled through a Shariah-based system and the constitution should be discarded. Could there be any consensus or even dialogue around such maximalist demands? And will any government accept these conditions? Therefore in the absence of any common ground between the two sides, the question of negotiations hardly exists. Even in his interview, Hakeemullah has reiterated that they would not go back on their demand to make Pakistan a true Islamic state, something that conforms to their narrow, backward interpretation of Islam. He has also demanded an end to drone attacks, but insists the TTP would continue fighting for their version of an Islamic state in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Is Pakistan in a position to wrest any such concession from the US? Without adhering to the realities on the ground, Hakeemullah and company keep demanding things that are impossible to achieve. The only solution, therefore, is to deal with them with force. In what seems to be growing dissatisfaction with the TTP stance, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to set up a counter-terrorism force in all the provinces. It seems that he has realized that force is the only language that could effectively be used against these criminals. This initiative of the prime minister reflects Nawaz Sharif’s increasing clarity on the need for the use of force to deal with these anarchists. The time has come for all the country’s governments to clear their thinking about their strategy against the terrorists. The muddled approach so far of the Central and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments towards the TTP has polarized public opinion, creating more confusion and apologists for the TTP in the process. *