Pakistani Taliban decide not to renew ceasefire
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan pulls out of the agreement reached with the government last month, accusing the latter of failing to live up to its commitments. Pakistani authorities released prisoners, but not those requested by the terrorists. The TPP wants to turn Pakistan into an Islamic state.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) – The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a terrorist organisation inspired by the Afghan Taliban, did not renew a ceasefire agreement with the government, saying that the authorities had failed to respect it.
In an attempt to end the war that extremists have been waging against the state for years, the Pakistani government had agreed to a month-long ceasefire with the TTP on 9 November, with the possibility of extending it.
Yesterday however, the Taliban issued a statement claiming that the authorities had not respected their commitments, which included mediation by “the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” and the release of a hundred “imprisoned mujahideen”.
The TPP also claimed that the government had conducted raids during the ceasefire.
In an audio, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, Noor Wali Mehsud, authorised members of the organization to resume their attacks.
The government did release prisoners linked to the TPP, but only those who had undergone de-radicalisation programme, not those requested by the terrorists.
Speaking to News International, a government official explained anonymously that the release was delayed because it was first necessary to decide whether or not to allow the higher-ranking Taliban to go to Afghanistan or remain “in their respective areas in Pakistan”.
According to several observers, negotiations between the TTP and the government are a failure and are doomed to fail again in the future because the Taliban aim is to destroy the Pakistani state.
The extremists reiterated their demands in a video posted on 8 December by Umar Media, the TTP’s main communication channel.
In the video, Noor Wali Mehsud freely moves in what the terrorists call the “Northern Zone”, an area that Taliban leaders no longer had access to after the Pakistani military carried out operation Zarb-i-Azb in 2014-15.
In it, Mehsud expresses joy at the victory in Afghanistan, saying that he could not eat nor drink from happiness.
He also reiterated that that the TTP is a branch of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and stressed that his organisation’s ultimate goal is to set up an Islamic state in Pakistan and impose Sharia (Islamic law).
To this end, Mehsud argues, the united movement must continue to fight against the Pakistani government.
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