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Asif Ali Khan Durrani, Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, has voiced strong support for the TTP’s relocation to northern Afghanistan in order to stabilize Pakistan’s border regions.
During an interview with the Voice of America, Durrani stated that it is still premature to draw conclusions regarding the implementation of the plan to transfer Pakistani Taliban fighters to remote areas of Afghanistan.
The Pakistani government is taking steps to neutralize the TTP, he said.
He said that Afghanistan’s interim rulers recently initiated certain steps to address Pakistan’s as well as neighbours including China’s cross-border terror concerns.
Durrani said the Afghan government has announced that it is moving TTP members away from the border with Pakistan, and ‘they are waiting to see if this will lead to peace’.
According to Durrani, the only option for the TTP to put an end to the bloodshed is to turn themselves in and face the law. Pakistan has already tried to engage with the TTP, but the talks failed because the outlawed group made absurd demands.
He stressed that the TTP no longer controls any land in Pakistan, and that their departure from the border regions indicates that the Afghan Taliban no longer see them as a threat.
“It’s a serious issue. But steps are being taken to neutralize the TTP. We should also understand that it will take a while, but the process has been initiated,” Durrani responded to a recent Taliban announcement that TTP members were being moved away from Afghan areas bordering Pakistan.
“That is a step the Afghan government is taking, so we have to wait and see the results. It is now in the initial stages, so it would be too early to comment,” said the Pakistan envoy. “But if this relocation of TTP can actually happen and lead to peace along our borders, it would be a significant development, and we would welcome it,” Durrani added.
Islamabad would consider it a significant development if the relocation of TTP militants actually takes place and results in peace and stability along the Durand Line, according to Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan affairs.
