Says talks only to take place if TTP lays down arms, accepts constitution
ISLAMABAD
Pakistan will continue efforts to hold peace talks with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) but only on the condition that the insurgents lay down their arms first, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Wednesday.
“Efforts will and are being carried out to bring the TTP to the (negotiation) table,” Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told reporters at a press conference in Islamabad. “But the primary condition (for talks with TTP) is that they give up their arms and accept the law and the constitution,” he said.
Sanaulah said that at the meeting of the National Security Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier this week, it was decided that there would be zero tolerance for terrorism in Pakistan. “There is no mixed message. There are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ terrorists. Anyone involved in terrorism is a terrorist. There is no question of them being red, white, or black,” he added.
He said that, from January to December 2022, 67 per cent of terrorism incidents took place in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, 31 per cent in Balochistan, and the rest in Punjab and Balochistan.
He said that it was further decided that training and support would be given to counter-terrorism departments from all provinces, especially Balochistan and K-P so that they are able to more effectively control terrorism.
He said that it was further discussed to put into place a coordinated structure of the CTD at the federal level — a National Counter-Terrorism Department — so that counter-terrorism efforts could be better coordinated between the four provinces and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The interior minister’s comments come as Pakistan faces an uptick in terrorist attacks, with the outlawed TTP using its safe havens in Afghanistan as a springboard for its new terror campaign.
Sanaullah, who believes the TTP has between 7,000 and 10,000 foot soldiers, warned in a recent TV interview last week that Pakistani forces could target the TTP sanctuaries in Afghanistan’s border regions, if Kabul did not listen to requests for action against them.
