| inbluevt | Date: Monday, 2013/10/28, 1:20 AM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
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PESHAWAR, Oct 27 2013 (IPS) - As international troops get ready to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and NATO-ISAF (International Assistance Security Force) prepare the Afghan National Security Forces to take over from them, there is fear and misgiving in neighbouring Pakistan, particularly in the adjoining regions of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the
northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
People here fear that the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan will only strengthen militant forces in their midst, especially the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Headquartered in FATA’s South Waziristan agency, the TTP’s avowed aim is to establish the Islamic law of Sharia in the country.
Ever since it emerged in 2007, the now banned outfit has unleashed a reign of terror with bomb and suicide attacks against the Pakistani state, intelligence agencies and civilian targets.
A small flicker of hope arose when the Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) came into power in May this year and expressed a strong willingness to make peace with the militants. An All Parties Conference on Sep. 9 gave the federal government the mandate to initiate
such talks. As a further marker of its peaceful intent, the government has been releasing some prisoners.
At the provincial level, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, always vocal about talks with Taliban, has only raised his pitch after his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party formed the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this May.
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The police guard a jail in Peshawar after the Taliban engineered a mass outbreak of their imprisoned comrades. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
Message edited by inbluevt - Monday, 2013/10/28, 1:22 AM |
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