Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chief and former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said that his government had planned to resettle the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban fighters in Pakistan's tribal districts through the Afghan Taliban's help but the plan could not go through due to provinces' non-cooperation, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported.
Khan while speaking at a seminar on terrorism organised by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in Islamabad, said that the PTI government had planned to relocate at least 5,000 TTP fighters and their family members which amount to about 35,000, but the plan did not go through as the provinces refused to pay for the bill.
He said that the Sindh and Balochistan governments initially refused to give a three percent share from National Finance Commission (NFC) for the upliftment of tribal districts and then the federal government stopped its cooperation after the PTI's ouster, reported Dawn newspaper.
Khan said the Pakistan government had the opportunity to deal with the TTP threat after the fall of Kabul and the rise of the Taliban to power.
"The Afghan Taliban pressurised the TTP, which had over 5,000 fighters among its 40,000-strong group, to go back to Pakistan and we took a number of steps to deal with it," he said.
Khan said that there was an anti-merger group in tribal areas and the PTI wanted to launch upliftment projects to satisfy the anti-merger group, but the lack of funds didn't lead to anything significant in this regard, reported Dawn newspaper.
Khan has condemned the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz- led government's "irresponsible statements" against the Taliban and warned that a deterioration in Afghan ties could result in a "never-ending" war against terrorism, Dawn reported.
Khan spoke about the criticism leveled at the PTI government for leading peace talks with the TTP, adding that the opposition parties should not "lie to the people."
About 1,000 people were killed and injured in attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan on the Pakistan government in 2022, according to statistics published by the TTP terrorist group, Khaama Press reported.
TTP said in a video, that most of their attacks took place in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. They also launched attacks outside the province, Khaama Press reported.
The Khaama Press report quoted Interior Minister of Pakistan Rana Sanaullah who claimed that the TTP has hideouts in Afghanistan and organizes its attacks against Pakistan from there. He also mentioned that Pakistan has the right to attack these safe havens of TTP in Afghanistan. This may notably be to protect its people from the rising attack on border provinces of Pakistan.
( With inputs from ANI )
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