The Taliban says that it is still keen to mediate between Islamabad and the TTP, or the Pakistani Taliban, but Pakistan says only if the outfit surrenders and is disarmed.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s Foreign Minister, proposed talks between Pakistan and the TTP when he visited Islamabad last month.
“We are no longer seeking talks with the TTP. The possibility of talks can only be explored if TTP surrenders and lays down arms,” an official Pakistani source told The Express Tribune.
“Our offer is unambiguous: take it or leave it.”
When the Taliban retook control over Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistan asked the authorities in Kabul to facilitate peace talks between Islamabad and the TTP to put an end to the decades-long violence.
Taliban’s Haqqani group did.
The peace talks were held in late 2021 in Kabul and liaised by the Taliban’s acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI’s wanted list with a $10 million bounty on his head.
While a 5-month-long ceasefire between Islamabad and the TTP was agreed upon, it soon crumbled after TTP accused Pakistan’s army of carrying out “unwanted” operations against the group’s fighters in the northwestern tribal areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.
Following the failed ceasefire, the TTP significantly escalated its attacks across the country, particularly targeting Pakistani security forces. During this time, TTP-claimed attacks have more than tripled when 506 terror attacks were carried out in the country in 2022, killing nearly 2,000 people.
Since then Pakistan is reluctant to enter into another peace talks with the TTP and has consistently urged the Taliban authorities to crack down on the TTP, which the group has shown little or no will to do so.
The Taliban and the TTP are different groups but deeply rooted in terms of ideology, personal alignment, and operational tactics, among others. After all, many TTP foot soldiers fought alongside the Taliban in waging its “jihad” campaign against the former government and its backed US and NATO troops.
Most recently, the Taliban reportedly proposed the relocation of TTP fighters from Pakistan’s border areas if the Pakistani government was willing to bear the cost of the proposed plan. But, it is unclear if this proposal would work because neither the Taliban nor the Pakistani government has confirmed it.
