TTP issues threat to PPP, PML-N in major policy shift

Requests religious parties to 'refrain from activities against them'

KARACHI:

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Wednesday announced that it is considering taking concrete steps against the two major parties of the ruling coalition - the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

A statement issued by the TTP said that “if these two parties remain firm on their position and continue to be slaves of the army, then action will be taken against their leading people”.

“People should avoid getting close to such leading people,” added the statement.

The TTP claimed that the whole world is aware that the “Jihadi field of TTP is only Pakistan and our target is the security agencies occupying the country”.

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It added that it has not taken action against any political party for a long time but “unfortunately… [Foreign Minister] Bilawal Bhutto Zardari gave the United States (US) the status of mother to quench the thirst of his mother's love”, adding that by doing so “he openly declared war against TTP”.

“Although Bilawal sir is still young, this poor man has not yet witnessed the state of war,” the statement added.

The TTP further said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also “pushed the whole party into this war going against TTP for the sake of pleasing the US”.

Without taking any names, the TTP also gave a message to the religious leadership and said that there is no scope for action against them in TTP's policy, “but we also request you to refrain from activities against us”.

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The statement by TTP comes just a day after FM Bilawal had said that in a reversal of the policy adopted by the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government of talks with the outlawed group, the coalition government would quit “the policy of appeasement” of terrorists.

He also drew a distinction between the Taliban in Afghanistan and the TTP, saying that the former was a “reality” with “a history” of existence, while the latter was nothing but a terrorist organisation.

Moreover, PM Shehbaz earlier this week had chaired a National Security Committee (NSC) meeting that reviewed the Afghan strategy, particularly efforts to seek a peace deal with the banned TTP.

After revisiting the strategy pursued by the PTI government, the NSC took some major policy decisions, seeking the reversal of some of the flawed plans. A source in Islamabad had told The Express Tribune that the NSC had decided “there will be no longer any dialogue” with the TTP.

TTP ceasefire

In November, the TTP had announced that they have called off a ceasefire agreed with the federal government in June and had ordered its militants to stage terrorist attacks across the country, a statement from the banned terror outfit had said.

The TTP, a separate entity from the Taliban in Afghanistan but sharing a similar hardline ideology, has been responsible for hundreds of attacks and thousands of deaths since emerging in 2007.

The government and the TTP had agreed to a truce earlier this year after Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers took a prominent role in brokering peace talks but negotiations made little progress and there were frequent breaches.