Pakistan government's recent talks with two Islamist groups, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), will soon be a cause of global concern, as analysts said that the absence of clear policy, rising strategic confusion and pandemonium persist in the working of the Imran Khan government, a media report said.
"Temporary truce" was announced on Friday with the TTP, whose violence over the last decade has caused 70,000 casualties as per official records. TTP has been operating from tribal borderlands in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The Imran Khan government has also removed the proscribed status from the TLP after weeks of protests by the latter. Islamabad also released several detained workers of the TLP who were held for their violent protests. The group had also demanded the release of its chief Saad Rizvi and the removal of the French Ambassador.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had said he would like to give them a "forgive and forget" amnesty and let their fighters "lead lives of common citizens." But so far it is not clear if the all-powerful army that backs the Khan government is wholeheartedly behind the two moves, although the Army Chief, General Qaisar Javed Bajwa met the cleric, Mufti Muneebur Rahman, who mediated the truce with the TLP, reported The Times of Israel.
If Islamabad's strategy is to make peace with the domestic terror groups to fight the Islamic State-Khorasan and Al Qaida, that is not being explained. The two moves are opaque and camouflaged with slogans, claims and allegations, wrote Sergio Restelli in the Israeli publication.
Since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, cross-border violence has shot up in Pakistan forcing Islamabad forces to launch stern attacks against the terrorists.
The Pakistani military had recently launched a major operation against militants in North Waziristan, the last stronghold of the TTP, forcing militants to flee across the border into neighbouring Afghanistan.
Islamabad held close door talks with the TTP in Afghanistan's Khost province which were mediated by the Taliban.
Haqqani network chief and Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani was the key figure in the talks between the two. Huma Bagai, a security analyst, has warned that "using the Haqqani network is tricky and the government will have to see which side of international law it falls on. Haqqani network has gotten us in trouble in the past."
Restelli further stated that talks with the TTP and the TLP fall in the same pattern as those of the past governments in Pakistan over the last two decades. Military ruler Pervez Musharraf had talked to Sunni extremists but had managed to push them into Afghanistan whose US-backed government did not trust him.
Stating that until TTP's fighters stormed the Army Public School in Peshawar, killing 140, mostly children, Restelli recalled that the previous Nawaz Sharif government had also preferred talks and reconciliation to any tough action against the TTP.
( With inputs from ANI )
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