TTP has refused to announce a ceasefire and is pushing for the talks at an international or a larger national platform
New Delhi: Former chief of Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s intelligence agency, Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, who is presently the Commander of XI Corp, Peshawar, had sent a four-member team led by a former senator to talk with the Tehrik-E-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leadership to persuade them to arrive at a ceasefire. The XI corp is responsible for operations at Khyber—Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) region of Pakistan.
However, the talks failed to reach any concrete decision. Hameed, who was transferred out from his position as ISI chief last October, is considered to be in the “good books” of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan who wants him to be appointed as the next chief of army staff, replacing the incumbent General Qamar Chand Bajwa, whose tenure ends in November. However, reports coming from Islamabad state that Bajwa might be removed before his term ends by Khan to appoint his trusted Hameed as the next chief.
According to authoritative sources, the team that was sent by Hameed was led by former senator Muhammad Saleh Shah who hails from South Waziristan Agency, the tribal area of Pakistan. As per his official biography, he is a representative of “Mehsud” tribe of South Waziristan Agency and a member of the local Aman Jirga (Council of Elders for Peace). He has in the past too acted as a mediator on behalf of the army to defuse tension in the tribal belt.
These representatives of Hameed told the TTP leadership that the talks between them should be carried out without involving Sirajuddin Haqqani and Afghan Taliban, unlike the last time. However, the same was rejected by the TTP leadership who insisted on having the Afghan Taliban as a mediator.
The second condition too that was put across by Shah—that the TTP should announce a ceasefire—was also rejected by the TTP leadership which demanded the Pakistan army representative of fulfilling the promises that it had made during the December 2021 ceasefire agreement which was called off after one month with TTP blaming GHQ, Rawalpindi, reneging on its commitment.
The TTP has demanded the release of 102 prisoners that includes six of its senior commanders, something which was refused by the Shah-led team. More importantly, the TTP is pushing for the talks to happen at an international or a larger national platform, something on the lines of the US-Taliban talks that took place in Doha, Qatar. This, the TTP believes, will ensure that GHQ keeps its end of the bargain. However, the generals are not willing to do this.
Even as it engages the TTP leadership led by Noor Wali Mehsud, who in an interview to this newspaper last month had stated that “Meaningful negotiations are a part of the war”, security establishments in Islamabad had arranged for a meeting of its representative with Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a local commander with a pro-GHQ perception, who enjoys influence in Shumali, Waziristan. The officials met him at Khost, Afghanistan, in the office of the local Afghan Taliban governor.
According to Pakistan-based sources, who are related to the talks, the chances of the recent talks between the TTP leadership and GHQ reaching any meaningful conclusion appears remote unless both sides climb down from their set of demands.
“TTP wants Shariah-based rule in some parts of Pakistan, if not the entire country. They want the administrative control of some regions of FATA region and the release of its cadres who have been sent to prison by local courts. All these conditions are unlikely to be met by the ISI and Hameed. The ISI, on the other hand, wants the TTP to announce ceasefire from their side and lay down arms, something which TTP cannot do considering the past record of Pakistan security establishment which has reneged from its promises multiple times. The talks can only succeed if TTP and the ISI accept some of each other’s demands and ‘modify’ the rest. Till then, this war will continue and escalate,” the source, who requested anonymity, said.In its response to The Sunday Guardian last week, the TTP had denied talks taking place. Efforts to reach out to the TTP functionary concerned for a response on the matter this week proved futile. Emails sent to former senator Shah on the issue generated no response till the time the story went to press.