According to Express Tribune newspaper, the Taliban in Afghanistan has offered to help disarm the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP) under condition that the Pakistani government pays its financial costs.
The Taliban reportedly made the offer during a visit to Kabul on Wednesday of the Pakistani defence minister, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, and head of the country’s intelligence agency (ISI), General Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, during which they met the Taliban’s deputy prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Pakistan has in recent months accused the Taliban of providing sanctuary to TTP. The Pakistani defence minister and the ISI chief reportedly shared “irrefutable evidence” of TTP activities in Afghanistan with the Taliban leadership during visit to Kabul.
The Taliban, it has been reported, has asked Pakistan to fund a programme of disarming TTP members and bear the costs of their “rehabilitation”.
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In May 2022, the Taliban brokered a ceasfire deal between the Pakistani government and the TTP, which was broken by the latter resuming attacks in November 2022. The group accused the Pakistani government of breaking the deal and increasing its operations against them, and ordered its fighters to carry out attacks anywhere in Pakistan.
On 30 January 2022, a suicide attack in a mosque inside a heavily fortified area in Peshawar killed at least 100 people. The TTP initially claimed responsibility, but retracted later. And on 17 February the group claimed responsibility for attack on the Karachi police headquarters, which left at least 5 people dead.
The TTP, although not part of the Afghan Taliban, has pledged allegiance to the group’s leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada.
