The TTP were provided an opportunity in Swat, but the killing never stopped.
HASLEMERE, UK: To negotiate with a non-state entity, which itself is divided into various factions with different agendas — no education for girls, no international relations, etc. — will never work. The TTP were provided an opportunity in Swat, but the killing never stopped. Unfortunately, they neither practise, nor know what religion is. They are half-baked religious zealots — not unlike Al-Shabab of Somalia — and their main job is to kill anyone who does not agree with them and to enforce their own brand of Sharia.
Pakistanis, especially in rural Punjab, may be able to tolerate them for now, but will not be able to live with them. The decision by some to think that negotiating with the Taliban is possible will, in the end, come to haunt them.
Akhtar Ali Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2013.
