Senior TTP functionaries said that the group is never going to lay down its arm.
New Delhi: The fragile ceasefire between the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) Pakistan and the Pakistan army, that is in its second month, is likely to end with the TTP announcing that it was never going to surrender and lay down its arms.
Senior TTP functionaries told The Sunday Guardian on Friday that the group was never going to lay down its arm. This was communicated to The Sunday Guardian after, in a meeting between prominent political leadership of the country, ministers of the present Shahbaz Sharif government and senior army officials on Wednesday, the army assured the political leadership that the talks between the TTP and the army will be done in accordance with Pakistan’s Constitution and subject to approval of the Pakistan parliament.
Those who attended the meeting from the army side included chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Nadeem Raza, ISI chief Lt. Gen. Nadeem Anjum and Peshawar Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed who is handling the talks. The army delegation also told the politicians that one of the TTP’s primary demand—of demerger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) area—was non-negotiable.
Hence, in effect, two of the primary demands of TTP—that of being allowed to carry arms and de-merger of FATA with KP—have been outrightly rejected by the Pakistan army. The Sunday Guardian, in its 28 May report (Haqqani-brokered talks between TTP, GHQ stuck) had written about these two issues being the sticking point. The fact that the army has refused to budge on these two issues even after more than one month shows that it was unlikely to allow the TTP to have its way.
According to TTP sources, this was the third time that they had entered into a ceasefire agreement with the army which shows how serious the organization was to resolve the issues through talks. “The Pakistan army has, however, continued its operations. We will never surrender, the TTP will never compromise on the issue of freedom and sovereignty,” an authoritative TTP source told The Sunday Guardian on Friday.
The talks between the TTP and the army, that is taking place in Afghanistan since October last year and reached a concrete position in May this year, is being brokered by Taliban Afghanistan chief Sirrajuddin Haqqani, who according to Islamabad based sources, was gravitating towards the Pakistan army side while ignoring the “well-being’ of TTP and hence not taking a “balanced” approach as the TTP had expected.
The TTP, to a large extent, depends on the support it receives from the Taliban to fight the Pakistan army. And it is due to this factor that the Pakistan army had brought in the Taliban and pressured them to use its warm relations with the TTP to force them to agree on a ceasefire on conditions that will favour the Pakistan establishment in the longer run.