Pakistan Taliban chief snubs peace bid
By Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD - Following in the footsteps of fugitive Afghan Talibanamir Mullah
Omar, the elusive Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban - TTP) chief
Hakeemullah Mehsud has rejected the Pakistan government's most recent offer of
peace talks and vowed to carry out more terror attacks.
The fresh offer of dialogue was made by Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman
Malik on November 6 in a special Eid message on the eve of the Islamic
festival, calling on the TTP and all other militants to shed their weapons and
become part of the national mainstream.
The offer was made in accordance with a resolution adopted
during an All Parties Conference on October 18, at which key political parties
endorsed talks with the TTP. While vigorously rejecting the offer of peace
talks on Eid, the TTP chief declared that the war with the state of Pakistan
would continue, primarily because it is siding with "the forces of the infidel"
- a reference to the United States and it allies.
Mullah Omar, the supreme commander of the Afghan Taliban, has already rejected
the possibility of holding peace talks with the Americans until and unless
US-led forces withdraw from Afghanistan. In an August 30 statement, Mullah Omar
said the ongoing battle against US-led allied forces would lead to a victory
for the Afghan Taliban. The amir described the scheduled end-2014
withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan as a victory for the Taliban and
the defeat of the West's high-tech military.
In his special Eid day message released by the SITE Intelligence Group,
Hakeemullah Mehsud accused the Pakistani military and the state of handing over
Arab, Uzbek and other mujahideen to the kuffar (infidels) only to please
their leaders. The Arabs to whom the TTP chief referred are members of
al-Qaeda, while the Uzbeks are members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
(IMU) and other affiliated militant groups operating from the
Pakistan-Afghanistan tribal belt.
"Our war with you will continue and soon you will be humiliated in this very
life, and kuffar too will turn their back on you. For they [infidels]
have used you and can no longer see any strength remaining in you."
While reiterating his pledge of loyalty to Mullah Omar and blaming the
oppression and injustices committed against the militants by selfish rulers
whose loyalties lie with Jews and Christians, the TTP chief said that uniting
under the leadership of Mullah Omar and waging jihad was the only solution. "I
urge all Muslims to rise up against these agents of the kuffar who have
sold their consciences; to rise above their differences and unite under the
banner of Amir-ul-Momineen Mullah Mohammad Omar and work towards the revival of
the caliphate - a dream awaiting fulfillment," Hakeemullah Mehsud said.
Later in the statement, he rejected the Durand Line, the border that divides
Afghanistan and Pakistan, and said the bond with the Afghan Taliban would
"continue to strengthen".
There is no doubt that the Muslim ummah
[community] is one body, and as Muslims we do not accept the divisions of the
Durand Line or any borders.
We are all loyal soldiers of Amir-ul-Momineen Mullah Mohammad Omar. He is our
leader, guide and amir. The services and sacrifices made by
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan have been
proven over time and our association with them will only continue to
strengthen.
Hakeemullah Mehsud urged Muslims to "display utmost
unity" as the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) prepare to
withdraw from Afghanistan. "The armies of the kuffar are well on their
way to defeat, and as an exit strategy will make all last-ditch efforts to
create rifts among the ummah," Hakeemullah added.
The latest offer of peace talks from Islamabad came at a time when Pakistani
military operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the
AfPak border have had little impact on the operational capabilities of the TTP,
which is stepping up terror activities across Pakistan, amid reports that the
organizational strength and growth of the TTP have taken a quantum leap over
the past years, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
While there are those in the Pakistani establishment who believe that the TTP
has rejected the government's offer of peace talks while taking it as a sign of
weakness, others say the TTP was bound to reject Islamabad's peace offer
because its leadership no longer trusts the Pakistani military establishment.
The TTP is clearly in no mood to hold peace talks with Islamabad despite a
clear statement from Army Chief General Ashfaq Kiani on October 18 that the
Pakistan army had no objection to the government in Islamabad holding talks
with the Taliban.
Kiani endorsed Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's October 2 statement that his
government was ready to hold negotiations with all militant groups, including
the TTP. Reacting to the peace offer, Maulvi Faqeer Mohammad, the deputy
commander of TTP, on October 3 welcomed the prime minister's proposal, but not
without setting out two unattainable preconditions for talks: one, the
government should reconsider its relationship with the United States; and, two,
enforce Islamic sharia law in the country.
It was hard for the prime minister to accept these preconditions, especially
when Pakistan is already under tremendous pressure from the US to launch a
military offensive against the Haqqani militant network in the North Waziristan
tribal agency.
Even otherwise, influential diplomatic circles in Islamabad argue that the
Pakistan government simply can't hold peace talks with a militant group that
has already been placed on the international anti-terrorism sanctions list of
the United Nations Security Council. Before tagging the TTP as a terrorist
organization on July 29, 2011, the Security Council had already included
Hakeemullah Mehsud and his second-in-command, Waliur Rehman, in its sanctions
list of October 2010.
Strangely, the UN sanctions on the TTP came four years after the group emerged
along the rugged border areas with Afghanistan and declared an open war against
the Pakistani state and its security establishment for siding with foreign
forces. The US had added Hakeemullah Mehsud to its list of Specially Designated
Global Terrorists and the TTP to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations on
September 1, 2010.
Mehsud is wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for his
alleged involvement in the December 30, 2009, bombing of a US military base
located near the Afghan town of Khost that killed seven officers of the Central
Intelligence Agency. The explosion occurred after a suicide bomber, dispatched
with the alleged help of the TTP chief, entered the Khost military base and
detonated a device that was hidden under his clothing.
On August 20, 2010, Mehsud was charged federally with conspiracy to murder a US
national while outside the US and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass
destruction against a national of the US while outside the US. That same day, a
federal warrant was issued by the US District Court, District of Columbia, for
Mehsud's arrest.
The US State Department's Rewards for Justice Program is offering a prize of up to US$5 million for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction, in any
country, of Mehsud. He was last seen in February this year in the execution
video of Sultan Amir Tarar, better known as Colonel (retired) Imam, a former
Inter-Services Intelligence official who was kidnapped in March 2010.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan that Mehsud heads is an umbrella organization of
small and big Islamic militant groups based in the FATA. It was formed in North
Waziristan on December 12, 2007, when an assembly of 40 senior Pakistani jihadi
leaders commanding a pooled force of about 40,000 gathered in Peshawar, the
provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province, and decided to come
together under a single banner led by Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US
drone attack in August 2009.
The stated objectives of TTP at the time of its launch were to unite the
Pakistani Taliban and set up a centralized organization against NATO forces in
Afghanistan, besides waging a defensive jihad against the Pakistani security
forces. Since Baitullah's death and the elevation of Hakeemullah Mehsud, there
has been an unprecedented rise in TTP-sponsored terrorist activities in almost
every nook and corner of Pakistan. This is mainly because the TTP has combined
forces with al-Qaeda and some other terrorist organizations, threatening to
extend their reach and ambitions.
Although unending American drone strikes in the tribal areas have greatly
affected the TTP's capabilities, the al-Qaeda-linked jihadi group has clearly
sustained itself through alliances with other jihadi groups, splinter cells,
foot soldiers and guns-for-hire in the tribal belt.
However, instead of launching a full-scale military offensive in North
Waziristan to dismantle the vast jihadi infrastructure of the TTP, the
Pakistani establishment is offering peace talks, not only to the Taliban but to
other militant groups. This comes amid concerns expressed by international
terrorism experts that such moves are unwise and bound to produce another
fiasco, besides further eroding the authority of the Pakistan state.
Amir Mir is a senior Pakistani journalist and the author of several books
on the subject of militant Islam and terrorism, the latest being The
Bhutto murder trail: From Waziristan to GHQ.
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