ISLAMABAD: Following the March 3 terrorist attack at Islamabad district courts and the deaths of 11 more civilians, the government has decided not only to resume the stalled talks with the Taliban but also to directly involve the military authorities in the process, thus ignoring with impunity the fact that armies are raised to fight out the enemies instead of making them hold table talks with them.

As the government and the Taliban committees resumed their so-called peace talks on March 5 in Akora Khattak, a roadside bomb targeting a security forces convoy killed six soldiers in the Hangu district. While the TTP distanced itself from the attack as usual, the Taliban-linked Ansarul Mujahideen claimed responsibility, saying it was meant to avenge drone victims. Over 150 civilians and the security forces personnel have been killed in terrorist attacks across Pakistan ever since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had announced peace talks with the Taliban on January 28. The dialogue was suspended by the government in the aftermath of the slaughter of 23 Frontier Corps personnel by the Taliban last month, for which the Mohmand chapter of TTP had claimed responsibility.

These killing had prompted the military authorities to launch surgical air strikes against the Taliban hideouts in Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Defending his decision to suspend talks with the Taliban, PM Nawaz Sharif had stated: “We can’t surrender state authority to a handful of militants”. Army Chief General Raheel Sharif had also stated while justifying air strikes: “With the backing of the nation, the Army will accomplish the mission of defeating every threat posed to the motherland”. Hardly a week after the Taliban hideouts were targeted by the PAF fighter jets, the TTP decided to announce a ceasefire on March 1, with a clear intention of preventing more air raids and a military action in North Waziristan.

The government immediately called off the air strikes while reciprocating the Taliban’s announcement of a one-month ceasefire, as if it was waiting for an opportunity. While making the ceasefire announcement at a press conference, Interior Minister Ch Nisar Khan had described the aerial offensive in North Waziristan as action by the military in self-defence, adding that the armed forces have the right of self-defence which couldn’t be denied. A few hours before the interior minister’s March 2 press conference, the PAF fighter jets had conducted their final raids in the Khyber agency to avenge the deaths of 12 Khasadar Force personnel who had been killed on March 1 after roadside bombs hit their vehicles.

On March 3, at around 9:00 am, 11 people including a senior sessions’ judge and four lawyers were killed and 30 others injured in a gun, grenade and suicide attack targeting the district courts in Islamabad. The typical Taliban-like fidayeen attack, carried out by two fidayeen who entered the court premises raising slogans of Allah-o-Akbar, came 36 hours after the TTP’s ceasefire announcement.

While the TTP distanced itself from the attack as usual, a little-known jehadi group called Ahrarul Hind [which had parted ways with the TTP on February 10, 2014] claimed responsibility for the assault, saying the court was targeted because the prevailing system of justice in Pakistan was un-Islamic.

The prime minister wasted no time in holding emergent meetings with the Army chief and the ISI chief as well as his key cabinet ministers to discuss the situation arising out of the deadly episode which killed 11 civilians. The government finally came up with a solution 24 hours later when it was announced on March 4 that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, while showing his unwavering resolve to continue pursuing the peace process, has decided to resume the stalled peace talks [in the aftermath of Islamabad massacre] besides getting the military authorities directly involved in the talks process under his own supervision.

Showing determination to pursue dialogue with those who have killed almost 50,000 Pakistanis during the last decade, the prime minister simply forgot his steadfast resolve of the last week that the State authority would never be surrendered to a handful of Taliban militants. One is compelled to ask: what else is called surrendering the state writ and its authority to a handful of non-state actors? One is constrained to further ask why no retaliatory air strikes were carried out against the terrorist hideouts following the Islamabad attack in line with the interior minister’s February 27 announcement on the floor of the National Assembly that the terrorists would be paid in the same coin and their hideouts would be targeted after every act of terror. He had then announced during his March 2 press conference that the armed forces had the right of self-defence which couldn’t be denied.

One may ask who will react on behalf of the state of Pakistan to defend the innocent civilians who can’t take up guns against terrorists in self-defence. The Islamabad court attack and the Hangu bombing has proved once again that the ceasefire announcement by TTP was a useless exercise given that the outfit had distanced itself from the assault and a splinter group of the Taliban had claimed responsibility for the same. Many observers believe that the court assault was masterminded by the TTP and the Ahrarul Hind, which has the same agenda of the enforcement of Shariah, was a fictitious group which was invented to mislead the agencies. Even if one accepts TTP’s claim that it was not involved in the court carnage, the questions arises as to why the government was holding peace talks with a group which has no operational control over its affiliates either in Islamabad or in Hangu.

On its part, the TTP has announced the formation of a committee [without condemning the Islamabad bloodbath] to identify those involved in the attack so that action could be taken against them.

Meanwhile, the two committees formed by the government and the Taliban resumed peace talks in Akora Khattak on March 5. Both the committees will now hold a joint meeting with the prime minister and the dialogue process will keep moving forward until there is another major act of terrorism which is finally claimed by the TTP, as had been the case in the past. Amid all these developments, there is growing perception that the government is frightened to take the battle to its logical conclusion by ordering a decisive military action against the Taliban to dismantle their vast jehadi infrastructure from Waziristan region which has become a safe haven for many other international terrorist groups.

As things stand, the Taliban’s strategy seems to be the same old one of buying as much time as they can in line with the wider militant strategy of securing a sanctuary in the hinterlands of the post-NATO Pakistan and Afghanistan. As far as the government is concerned, it apparently lacks any counter terrorism strategy and is resorting to short term tactics to bring about momentary peace by indulging in talks with the Taliban. The government has already wasted almost nine months trying to appease the Taliban in one way or the other in its quest for peace, but the net result is the loss of thousands more lives and further destruction. Does that mean that the relevant authorities have mentally surrendered to the might of the Taliban mafia, therefore, making the prime minister consider involving the army in the so-called peace talks? To quote the ISPR Director General Maj Gen Asim Bajwa: “The army is bound to follow the government’s decisions”.

Source :

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-28954-What-else-is-called-a-state-surrender

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