No Talks With Militants

Asem Mustafa Awan

Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir has said that Pakistan will only negotiate with the Afghan Interim Government instead of any other group.

Addressing a grand tribal jirga in Peshawar, the Army Chief questioned Afghanistan, saying that Pakistan had given shelter to devastated Afghans and that the return of this kindness was the other way around.

The Army Chief made it clear that no power in the world can undo Pakistan and in the same breath, he asked what kind of Sharia law you want to implement the ‘Khawarij’ concept.

There is no second opinion that the surge in terrorist activities after the Taliban took over has been manifold.

The militancy has increased in recent months and in February alone, there were 19 attacks carried out in Pakistani territory, resulting in 23 deaths and 79 injuries. Pakistan, in retaliation, killed 49 militants, besides arresting another 44 in different operations.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other similar groups have carried out 20 attacks in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), six in Balochistan, and one in Karachi. The groups with nationalist ideologies carried out 10 attacks, killing 12 and injuring 33 in Sindh and Balochistan.

The operations are ongoing and the losses are on both sides, but it can’t be interpreted as a solution to the problem.

The Army Chief made it clear these militant groups are supported by militant groups in Afghanistan, and in January, the Police Line incident was not forgotten, where over 84 lives were lost in the suicide blast.

As many as 54 lives were lost in the Bajaur suicide attack and since the Taliban took over Kabul on August 31, 2021, the spike in terrorist-related incidents has multiplied.

A number of groups harbouring ill will against Pakistan get associated with the Afghan Taliban, who have time and again assured the entire world, particularly Pakistan, that their soil will not be used for any terrorist activity.

The Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS) shared alarming observations from August 2021 to April 2023 (21 months) showing a rise in terrorist activities of 138 percent.

The PIPS observations came with recommendations like extensive monitoring for policymakers, as KP and Balochistan bore the brunt while in other provinces in Pakistan the frequency of attacks was low.

The emerging trends are alarming, especially in KP, where militancy is on the rise. Baloch nationalist insurgency and ethnic violence in Sindh, combined with religious extremism, should ring a bell for policymakers to address the issues at the earliest. These inclinations are a threat to Pakistan and a security challenge that, if not tackled wisely, will result in both political and economic instability.

The two countries are faced with myriad problems and both have issues that relate to millions of people on both sides of the border. The interdependency between the two countries should be considered as brotherly relations can develop, but hostility between neighbours results in only friction.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are both faced with the dilemma of a trust deficit and the militant groups in Afghanistan can add fuel to the fire between the two countries, resulting in the beginning of another war on terror.

The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad and writes on a wide range of issues.

The article is a personal assessment of the writer and it can be contrary to the editorial policy of the organization.