Pakistan's PM Says Peace Talks Underway With Pakistani Taliban
ISLAMABAD
— Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has said his government is
engaged in peace talks with "some groups” of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or
TTP, an alliance of outlawed militant groups waging terrorist attacks in the
country.
Khan told TRT World, a Turkish state-owned broadcaster, the talks with the
militants are taking place in Afghanistan and the new Taliban rulers of the
neighboring country are helping in the process.
"There
are different groups which form the Pakistani Taliban or TTP, yes, so we are in
talks with some of them on a reconciliation process,” Khan said in a portion of
the interview the Turkish network released Friday. The full interview will be
aired Saturday.
The Pakistani prime minister said the aim of the discussions with TTP groups is
to convince the militants to lay down their arms "and then we forgive them and
they can become normal citizens.”
"The talks are taking place in Afghanistan, so in that sense yes,” Khan noted
when asked if the Afghan Taliban were helping in the process.
A spokesman for the ruling Taliban in Kabul, when contacted by VOA for a reaction to Khan’s assertions, said he would try to get one but sent no further response.
Prime
Minister Khan said he is expecting the talks will produce the desired outcome,
insisting he believes there is no military solution to tackle the militancy
challenge and "the political dialogue is the way ahead.”
"We might not reach some sort of a conclusion in the end, a settlement, but we
are talking,” he said.
Khan’s disclosure comes as the TTP has intensified attacks against Pakistani
security forces and other targets in recent weeks. Islamabad says leaders and
commanders of the banned group use sanctuaries in Afghanistan to orchestrate
cross-border attacks.
The United States and the United Nations have both designated the TTP as a
terrorist organization.
The Afghan Taliban is under pressure from the U.S. and other countries to prevent
transnational terrorist groups from using Afghan soil for external attacks.
Pakistan’s traditionally close ties with the Afghan Taliban might have
generated hopes the Islamist group would help rein in TTP cross-border violent
activities from their Afghan hideouts. But critics say those expectations could
be misplaced, citing the ideological closeness between the Afghan and the
Pakistani Taliban.
Just before the
Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August, their chief, Hibatullah
Akhundzada, set up a three-member high-powered commission to persuade TTP
members to stop violence against Pakistan and return to their homes across the
border to live peacefully, VOA had learned from highly placed official sources
in Islamabad.
However, the Taliban have not confirmed the commission’s formation and TTP
attacks have continued against Pakistani forces.
VOA
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