Pakistan Taliban End Truce With Gov't

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Facts

  • On Monday, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — a group ideologically aligned yet separate from Afghanistan’s Taliban — announced that it had called off a five-month-long ceasefire with the Pakistan government and ordered its fighters to restart attacks.
  • A day after the end of the truce, brokered by Afghanistan's Taliban, Pakistan's junior foreign minister reportedly traveled to Kabul to meet with the militant group to discuss several issues, including security.
  • Shortly after the deal's termination, security sources announced that a top TTP commander and ten other militants were killed in a fierce encounter between TTP fighters and Pakistani forces, although this couldn't be independently confirmed.
  • The unilateral end to the truce came on the eve of a change of command in the Pakistan Army that saw Chief of Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, replaced by General Asim Munir — now the 17th army chief.
  • TTP has been active in Pakistan for over a decade, and has claimed or been blamed for many deadly attacks — demanding the levying of Islamic law, the release of members arrested by the government, and the retraction of the merger of Pakistan’s tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Sources: Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Indian Express, and Nation.

Narratives

  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Washington Post. Jihadists and peace don’t co-exist. The ceasefire was supposed to halt the violence — it didn’t. It did, however, bring a nuclear state to its knees, which is unsurprising given that Pakistan negotiated with terrorists who want nothing else other than to see the destruction of a country they regard as fundamentally un-Islamic. Now, the government must make some harsh decisions before the country becomes a war-torn wasteland.
  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Crisis. Although the likelihood of a sustainable ceasefire with the TTP is slim — as evidenced by this latest development —Islamabad entered the agreement with no option other than to negotiate. While the TTP may be separate from the Afghan Taliban — a longstanding ally of Pakistan — they're two faces of the same coin. Needing to fortify ties with its neighboring country, Islamabad made the best it could out of an impossible situation.