Beginning of the end?: Preliminary talks with Taliban paying off says report

Possibility of Taliban snapping contacts with al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi explored in talks.

An exploratory round of negotiations with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has started paying off, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported quoting a senior government official. The militant group also confirmed it had begun preliminary talks with the government.

“The government had already done a lot of homework before reestablishing contacts with the TTP,” the official said. He requested not be named in the report because he was not authorised to publicly speak on the subject.

The killing of the Taliban’s second-in-command Waliur Rehman in a US drone strike, according to him, had damaged the peace process. However, contacts have been reestablished with the Taliban as a result of the government’s successful damage control efforts, he added.



Waliur Rehman – who was second to only Hakimullah Mehsud in the TTP hierarchy – died in a missile strike by a remotely-piloted US aircraft in North Waziristan Agency in May, this year. Incensed by the deadly strike, the TTP withdrew their dialogue offer, blaming the government for Rehman’s killing.

A key TTP commander confirmed the revival of talks with the government. In the exploratory talks, the two sides discussed several issues, including the possibility of the TTP snapping ties with al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi sectarian extremist group, he told the BBC. However, he wouldn’t say who was mediating on behalf of the government.

The Taliban say that anti-Pakistan militant groups are under increasing pressure to negotiate a peace pact with the government before the 2014 withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from Afghanistan.

This is the first time a senior official of the PML-N government has confirmed contacts with the Taliban. Asked how the fresh dialogue was different from the previous such talks, the government official said, “You’ll see the difference.”

The official didn’t say how the exploratory talks had paid off. But security analysts believe the government has somehow persuaded the TTP to stop their deadly attacks in the country. The August 8 suicide bombing at the Quetta Police Lines was the last major attack claimed by the TTP.

At the same time, the government is fine-tuning a comprehensive national counter-terrorism strategy. Sources say the government was consulting all political parties on the proposed policy which could be unveiled over the next few weeks.

In his maiden televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said that he favoured talks as the first, though not the only, option in dealing with the Taliban.

An Islamabad-based western diplomat told the BBC that Premier Nawaz and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani were on the same page vis-à-vis talks with the Taliban. They agree that peace talks are possible if the militants cease fire and accept the country’s Constitution.

The TTP is already divided over the government’s dialogue offer. The group sacked the Punjabi Taliban chief, Asmatullah Muavia, earlier this month after he welcomed the prime minister’s offer for talks.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2013.