FO rejects Afghan Taliban offer to broker talks with TTP

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday dismissed the Afghan Taliban’s latest offer to mediate between Pakistan and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, labelling it an insult to the victims of TTP’s terrorist activities.

“Pakistan has no plans to engage in any talks with TTP. We believe that such offers are an affront to thousands of victims of TTP, who have been killed in Pakistan,” FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said during a weekly media briefing.

She was responding to a query regarding the offer made by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, who had suggested in a recent media interview that the Taliban administration could facilitate negotiations with the TTP. Mujahid also trivialised the TTP issue, referring to it as an “internal matter” of Pakistan.

The TTP, which maintains sanctuaries in Afghanistan from where it orchestrates and executes terrorist activities in Pakistan, has significantly strained relations between Islamabad and the Taliban government.

Reiterating Islamabad’s position on the TTP, Ms Baloch advised the Afghan authorities to take action against the TTP and other terror groups that continue to threaten Pakistan’s security and have been involved in the killing of Pakistani nationals on Pakistani soil.

She also noted that Pakistan has not only bilaterally shared “concrete evidence” of the involvement of Afghanistan-based individuals and groups in terrorist incidents within Pakistan, but the presence of terror groups, including the TTP, in Afghanistan has also been documented in multiple independent reports.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2024