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09-11-2021
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report
ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI: Almost all national and global terror organizations, clusters, parties, chapters and networks particularly Taliban (Khurasani, Sajna, Chichen Uzbick, Tajik, Arab and Ajam groups), Daesh, ISIS, ISIL, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jama’at those have not only been working in Pakistan as well as across the world during last three decades but also hypocritically banned after five so-called civil and military operations in different years, times and reasons are now not only likely to be allowed to work legitimately but all these organizations will also be restored in near future, sources told Press Media of India (PMI).
The Pakistani government and the armed group Pakistan Taliban (TTP) have agreed to a one-month ceasefire.
Government spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said the Taliban government in Afghanistan helped facilitate the ceasefire between the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the banned outfit.
“The government of Pakistan and banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistani Taliban also known as a group of ISIL or anti-Shia Muslims) has agreed on a complete ceasefire,” Chaudhry said in a statement on Monday.
According to state broadcaster Pakistan Television (PTV), the minister said the focus of the talks was on “state sovereignty, national security and peace, social and economic stability in the areas concerned”.
In a statement, Pakistan Taliban spokesperson Mohammad Khurasani confirmed the ceasefire beginning November 9 would remain in place until December 9, during which both sides will form a committee to continue talks. He said both sides will adhere to the ceasefire.
The peace talks between the government and the TTP began last month. Chaudry said the truce could be extended if talks continue to make progress.
The Pakistan Taliban is a separate organization from Afghanistan’s Taliban, which seized power in August.
Authorities had earlier said that peace talks were taking place with TTP leaders in Afghanistan, where they have been hiding for the past several years. The Pakistan Taliban was formed by armed rebels in 2007 and since then, thousands of people have been killed in dozens of attacks claimed by the group in the past 14 years.
About a million people were displaced when Pakistan launched operations in the northwest in 2013 to clear out TTP fighters. They returned to their homes after 2017 after Pakistan claimed victory against the armed group.
Pakistan military offensives have driven the Pakistan Taliban from its stronghold in the tribal districts but it is estimated to control some 4,000-5,000 fighters, many based across the border in Afghanistan.
Both Pakistan and the former Western-backed government in Kabul regularly accuse each other of providing shelter to Taliban groups and allowing them to conduct cross-border attacks.
Meanwhile, Pakistan says it has lifted a ban on a far-right party behind violent anti-France protests last month that triggered clashes with police, resulting in six officers and four demonstrators’ death.
The development follows an agreement reached last week between the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) that the party would halt its march to Islamabad.
The march was called to demand the closure of the French embassy in the Pakistani capital.
The Ministry of Interior lifted the ban late on Sunday, saying the move was in the “larger national interest” amid assurances the party would not indulge in violent activities in future.
The protest march on Islamabad, which started on October 22, was also meant to demand the release of the party’s leader, Saad Rizvi, who was arrested a year ago, as well as thousands of its members detained in a crackdown to foil the march from Lahore to Islamabad.
TLP was outlawed a year ago amid violent rallies over the publication of the caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in France.
The party started demanding the expulsion of the French envoy in October 2020, when French President Emmanuel Macron tried to defend the caricatures as freedom of expression.
Macron’s comments came after a young Muslim beheaded a French school teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet in class.
The images were republished by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to mark the opening of the trial over the deadly 2015 attack against the publication of the original caricatures.
That enraged many Muslims who believe those depictions were blasphemous.
Pakistan’s move to lift the ban on TLP drew criticism on social media.
TLP supporters are yet to formally announce the end of their march and scores of demonstrators are still sitting along a highway in the city of Wazirabad.
Authorities last week said they freed more than 1,000 detained TLP supporters and that a process was under way to release Rizvi.
Rizvi’s party gained prominence in Pakistan’s 2018 elections, campaigning on the single issue of defending the country’s blasphemy law, which calls for the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.
Pakistan’s military was to brief legislators later on Monday on the current security situation in the country.
