Pakistan inside minister defends talks with banned terror group TTP

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid has defended the federal government’s transfer to carry talks with banned terror group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for “reconciliation”, saying the negotiations are for “good Taliban”.
Rashid’s remarks got here after Prime Minister Imran Khan in an interview with Turkish government-owned TRT World information channel revealed that his authorities was in talks with the TTP with the assistance of the Taliban in Afghanistan, drawing criticism from politicians and victims of terrorism.
The TTP, generally often known as the Pakistani Taliban, is a banned terrorist organisation primarily based alongside the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Defending the federal government’s transfer, the minister stated the supply was not for militants who had been chargeable for bloodshed within the nation, together with the December 2014 bloodbath within the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar which left over 150 individuals lifeless, Dawn newspaper reported.

“We know very well who’s good and who’s bad. Anyone who thinks we are not aware of that, he’s mistaken, he doesn’t have sense,” he stated.
The supply of talks was just for “good Taliban” and negotiations on this had been happening on the “highest-level,” he stated.
He maintained that it was not acceptable to combat with those that have surrendered to undertake peaceable lives.

“The case of those who were involved in incidents like the APS is different. And the case of those who left the country for different reasons is different,” he stated on Friday whereas responding to a query in regards to the benefit and mechanism of talks with the TTP.
“We are not surrendering to anyone and this process is at a very early phase. No one needs to jump to conclusions at this stage.”
Prime Minister Khan on Friday provided amnesty to the TTP offered the militant organisation lay down arms, disclosing that the federal government was holding talks with some teams of the outfit looking for reconciliation.

The disclosure attracted a robust response, primarily from the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which questioned the transfer to carry negotiations with the TTP with out taking Parliament into confidence, arguing that it will solely add to the ache and grief of the households of the martyrs.
The TTP has been concerned in numerous assaults in Pakistan for greater than a decade which killed 1000’s of individuals. The authorities is now attempting to make use of the affect of the Afghan Taliban over the TTP to succeed in a peace deal and finish violence.