Warming up: Intermediary says Taliban are not terrorists

Maulana Yousaf says Taliban are ‘annoyed brothers of the state’.

HARIPUR: The Taliban are ‘neither terrorists nor traitors’, according to Maulana Yousaf Shah, the coordinator of the Taliban intermediary committee and senior leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Samiul Haq (JUI-S).

“They [the Taliban] are just the annoyed brothers of the state,” he told reporters at Jamia Imdadiya seminary during his visit to Haripur on Sunday.

Shah denied any schisms within the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and said those spreading rumours were opponents of the peace process and the state. “All members of the TTP are obeying the decisions of their ameer (chief),” he said.

The TTP intermediary appreciated the extension of ceasefire by the TTP and urged both the Taliban and the government to announce a permanent ceasefire for lasting peace in the country.

Talking about the second face-to-face meeting, he said a venue would be finalised within the next couple of days. Shah added that a mechanism was being worked out to facilitate the parties to reach a brisk decision.

The JUI-S leader insisted that the talks should be given time for it to reach a successful conclusion as it was a reasonable solution to the 12-year bloodshed that had claimed over 50,000 lives.

He further stated that the TTP Political Shura has been informed about the recent meeting of their intermediaries with the interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

Shah expressed hope that the government’s recent decision to release Taliban’s ‘non-combatant prisoners’ would augment the peace efforts.

In response to a question, the JUI-S chief said that Miramshah, in North Waziristan Agency, is the part of Pakistan and hence the TTP did not need to open its new offices in other parts of the country.

Regarding the Afghan elections, Shah said one should not pin hopes on the new president, as he, too, would only prove to be an American stooge.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2014.