With the Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) carrying out a series of deadly attacks, the Pakistan government has been left with no other option other than begging the Taliban regime of Afghanistan to help control the Islamist militant group.
A desperate Pakistan has sought Afghan Taliban chief Haibuttallah Akhundzada’s help to rein in the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) – also known as the Pakistani Taliban – which has carried out a wave of attacks against the security forces in the country, including the recent suicide blast in a Peshawar mosque that killed over 100 people, mostly policemen.
After the Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) decided to end a truce with the Pakistan government late last year, it has caused widespread carnage with almost daily attacks against the security forces, mostly in the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The restive province of Balochistan and Punjab – the heartland of Pakistan – have also witnessed several TTP attacks.
According to ‘The Express Tribune’ newspaper, the military and civil leadership of Pakistan had convened a meeting of the Apex Committee in Peshawar on Friday, during which it was decided that Afghan Taliban chief Haibuttallah Akhundzada’s intervention will be sought to control the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and put an end to its hideouts in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, who was present during the Apex Committee on Friday, claimed that the masterminds of the Peshawar mosque attack could be in Afghanistan, adding that the federal government will raise the issue with the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.
While acknowledging his government’s failure to avert the Peshawar suicide attack, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for “national unity” to tackle the TTP challlenge.
“There is a need for unity across the political spectrum. This act of terrorism managed to breach the security check post and reach the mosque. We should not feel hesitant in admitting the facts,” Shehbaz Sharif said at the meeting.
According to news agency PTI, the authorities in Pakistan have claimed to have made an “important breakthrough” in the probe into the suicide blast in the Peshawar mosque by identifying the suicide bomber through his DNA samples.
The police informed the media that after the DNA test was conducted, the investigators are trying to trace the family of the Taliban suicide bomber.
The TTP, which is believed to have close links to al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban – their Pashtun brethren across the Durand Line – has threatened to target the top leaders of Pakistan’s ruling coalition which comprises Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s PML-N and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s PPP if it continued to implement strict measures against the militants.
Pakistan had supported the Afghan Taliban with men and materials during its two decades of war with the US-led NATO forces in the hope of gaining ‘strategic depth’ in Afghanistan and using it against arch-rival India.
After the Afghan Taliban captured Kabul in August 2021 following the withdrawal of the US and NATO from Afghanistan, there were wild celebrations in Pakistan. However, those celebrations died down very soon as the Afghan Taliban refused to take action against the TTP, leading to strained ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
