Peshawar Blast: A Painful Tragedy 

After several terrorist attacks across the country, a major and tragic incident took place in Peshawar yesterday in which a large number of civilians were martyred. At least 57 people have been killed and nearly 200 injured in a suicide attack (according to a private TV channel) during Friday prayers at Kucha Risaldar mosque. This is the biggest suicide bombing in Pakistan in recent times. The aftermath of the blast turned out to be a painful one. Survivors were busy searching for their loved ones and children were also martyred. Sighs and screams spread everywhere.

In my opinion, since the restoration of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the incidence of terrorism in Pakistan has increased dramatically.

The reason may be that the Afghan Taliban know the art of dealing with ISIS because they have a strategy similar to ISIS and we dealt well with ISIS. Just yesterday, Muslim Dost, who was a member of ISIS and was also imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, surrendered in Afghanistan, so the Taliban in Afghanistan have left little space for ISIS. I think similar ISIS operations in Pakistan are expected in the future as well. ISIS is a big threat to Pakistan. ISIS has not yet claimed responsibility for the Peshawar Blast, but it appears to have been carried out by ISIS. Both ISIS and TTP are threats to Pakistan but TTP is in one form and ISIS in another. Unfortunately, our government does not have a comprehensive policy on both.

The TTP is a franchise of the Afghan Taliban and for the last 14 or 15 years, some journalists have been saying that TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) and TTA (Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan) are not separate entities. TTP was also screaming and saying that we are part of the Afghan Taliban. They considered Amir-ul-Momineen of the Afghan Taliban as their Amir-ul-Momineen. Their leaders were one, their beliefs were one, their literature was one and their method was one. But a line was being read here in Pakistan that TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) and TTA (Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan) have no relationship and TTA is good while TTP is bad.

Today no one is asking these people. Even today they are further misleading the nation by becoming a defense analyst on TV channels. So now it is clear that Pakistan will deal with TTP as much as only through TTA. Because on one hand, they are on their land and on the other hand they listen to them only but the problem is that in the beginning we made TTA mediator and did not take the political leadership, opposition, etc. into confidence and made a commitment with them that within a month, one hundred and two of their prisoners would be released, including people like Muslim Khan and Haji Umar whose cases are in the courts.

Meanwhile, in the case of the French ambassador, the government was busy dealing with the TLP long march. The government had to form a committee but the government could not even form a committee and a month passed. Now the TTP people say and the TTA people also say that Pakistan did not fulfill their commitment. The TTP had called a ceasefire during that time, but now the ceasefire is over. But there is also some engagement as some TTP members were recently released. But even today there is no comprehensive policy or strategy at the central level.

Pakistan has made significant progress in curbing terrorist financing, 6 out of 7 points were completed soon to stop terrorist financing. According to the FATF statement, Pakistan has fulfilled 26 of the 27 conditions and Pakistan may be in the whitelist in June but if such serious and heartbreaking acts of terrorism continue to occur and Pakistan becomes a hotbed of terrorism, how can Pakistan’s global reputation be improved?

The government should formulate a clear and comprehensive policy to deal with internal and external terrorism so that Pakistan’s reputation at the international level can be improved and the loss of precious lives can be prevented.