Pakistan on Thursday said that it was not interested in a dialogue with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) after a leading cleric visited Kabul and talked of dialogue following his meeting with the Afghan Taliban leadership. Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch in her weekly press briefing said that Pakistan’s stance was clear because the TTP had accepted responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks in the country.
The spokesperson said there is no change in Pakistan’s policy towards the TTP. “We have no dialogue taking place with the TTP nor do we have the intent to hold talks with it which is responsible for several terror incidents in Pakistan,” she said. She once again demanded the Afghan authorities take effective action against terrorist elements including the TTP leadership. She said the Afghan authorities should ensure the elimination of terrorist hideouts and hand over to Islamabad those responsible for terror incidents in Pakistan. “Our demand from the Afghan government is that they take action against the terrorists,” she said. The issue of talks cropped at the presser in the wake a visit to Afghanistan by the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who reportedly also met Afghan Taliban’s recluse supreme chief Mullah Haibatullah Akuhnd.
After meetings, Rehman said that he would try to revive talks between the government and the TTP. Baloch said Rehman’s visit to Afghanistan was neither on behalf of the Government of Pakistan nor the Foreign Office. “The Foreign Office had given a briefing to Maulana Fazlur Rehman before his visit. He has gone on his own volition,” she said. The spokesperson also reiterated that the maulana had not gone to Kabul as a representative of Pakistan.
Speaking about terrorism, Baloch said that Pakistan, along with Afghanistan and Iran, will continue to work together in its efforts against terrorism. “Pakistan strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Kerman, Iran,” she said. Pakistan had held several rounds of talks - brokered by the Afghan Taliban - with the TTP in the past but the negotiations failed in 2022 after which the militant group resumed terror activities. The TTP has become a thorny issue between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban.