Islamabad: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has accused the former Imran Khan government of giving mixed signals to the Afghan Taliban seeking talks with the TTP which led to an inaction against the terror group.
In an interview, Bilawal said that during Khan’s tenure, the government had been asking the Afghan Taliban to facilitate table talks with the TTP and come to a mutual agreement of peace, which included releasing terrorists and commanders from Pakistani jails; allowing militants to return to Pakistan from Afghanistan; and resettle in areas spread across the countries’ border.
“Unfortunately, following the fall of Kabul, the government that preceded ours started negotiating with these very same terrorist groups and without preconditions such as disarming,” he said.
The Foreign Minister said that the Khan government’s willingness to talk with the TTP did not reflect the sentiments of the people at large who asserted that terrorists could never be considered as friends.
Bilawal’s statement comes amid a resurgence of terrorism in Pakistan with increased targeted attacks on security installations, places and even mosques.
Terming the former government’s policy to ask the Afghan Taliban to facilitate talks with the TTP as a “policy of appeasement”, Bilawal emphasized that became the prime reason why thousands of TTP militants in Afghanistan were allowed to come back to Pakistan and station themselves back in different parts of the country, which later blew up on the country’s face.
However, he also maintained that the incumbent government and the new military establishment under the new chief of army staff, has put a full stop to the policy of appeasement.
The Foreign Minister also took the option of negotiations with the TTP off the table, saying it was against the interest of the country.
“Those people who don’t accept Pakistan and don’t accept the Constitution, I don’t think negotiating with them in in the interest of Pakistan or its people.
“We have a very porous border with Afghanistan, which the current government does not have the capacity to man. The withdrawal of western forces from Afghanistan has given a lot of space to various terrorist groups in Afghanistan, which has caused immense challenges for Pakistan,” he added.
(IANS)
