R Krishna Das
Pakistan has finally entered into a truce with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) but failed to assess it can be a treacherous treaty.
The Imran Khan government has reached an understanding with the TTP that has unleashed bloody violence in the country, killing thousands of people. But the episode and the sequence that held to negotiation has baffled the security experts in the country. For, the deal has been mediated by the Haqqani network of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan that Pakistani analysts feel is “very dangerous.”
The first phase of talks with the TTP has been completed but the second phase will be “very tough” as there will be many challenges. It is because there is no clarity on the terms and conditions of the agreement. When it will come to execute the deal, probably Pakistan will realise what blunder it has committed.
TTP’s main demand during negotiations earlier has been the enforcement of their interpretation of sharia (Islamic law). Such terms, if agreed to in the deal, will have a “very negative impact and be very harmful,” an expert says, adding if this is not part of the deal then the treaty will mean nothing for the TTP. The conditions agreed upon have been very important, especially considering the attacks by the TTP over the last few months.
The development will also damage Pakistan’s international reputation as it has surrendered before Taliban to enter into the agreement to appease a “terror” group. The interior minister of Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, Sirajuddin Haqqani, has been playing a mediating role between Pakistan and the TTP, bringing the two sides under one roof to engage in face-to-face talks. Taking help from the Haqqani network is tricky as it has also put Pakistan in trouble in the past, one of the experts said.
The biggest slap for Pakistan will be from India. The deal exposes Pakistan’s false propaganda against it. Pakistan has been claiming that TTP has support from India and its external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). It will now be hard for Pakistan to explain why it has offered amnesty to the organisation that has backing from India.
The biggest blunder on the part of Pakistan is that it has failed to learn a lesson from the 2009 truce with TTP in Swat. This is not the first time that talks have taken place. At the onset of the current deal, Pakistan has released over 1000 TTP activists including some hardcore leaders. It did the same in 2009 and the leaders led major strikes that claimed thousands of lives.
The deal has to be terminated in two years and the Pakistan Army has to launch an operation in the Swat valley to flush out militants.
