‘Security’ via appeasement

dominantly inhabited by the Shia community. There was no claim of responsibility for the gruesome attack that killed scores of men, women and children.

But the footprints lead to a Taliban aligned sectarian outfit. Last week another bombing destroyed a mosque in Peshawar killing several worshippers. The wages of appeasement are leading to the loss of more innocent lives and pushing the country towards more instability.

Not only did the conference concede to the Taliban’s conditions for so-called peace negotiations, it even dropped the word terrorism to mollify those responsible for murder. The killings of thousands of people were instead attributed to “lawlessness”, absolving the Taliban of suicide bombings and beheadings of security personnel for whom they themselves had claimed the responsibility.

Nothing could be more farcical than the conference declaration that reduced the whole issue of militant violence to a war between the Taliban and the army. For peace, it declared, it is essential to bring the two sides to the negotiating table. The fact that the TTP and its allies have declared a war on the Pakistani state was completely ignored by the participants in their eagerness to placate the Taliban.

The five-point declaration seems to be a part of the move by the political parties to distance themselves from the military operations against the militants in Fata.

Thousands of soldiers have been killed fighting the militants who had turned the already lawless region into a new hub of terrorism presenting an existentialist threat not only to Pakistan, but also challenging regional security. Nothing can be more treacherous than legitimising the violence and absolving those responsible for the death of thousands of Pakistanis. No wonder the Taliban have welcomed the multiparty declaration which has virtually validated the terms set by the banned terrorist outfits.

One can understand the defence of the Taliban by the JUI-F and other right-wing Islamic parties, who have contributed to the rise of militant narratives in this country.

But the signing of the declaration by parties like the Pakistan Peoples Party, Awami National Party, Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement is quite shocking.

Although there is no formal government approval for the declaration, the participation of the members of the coalition at the conference provides tacit support to the peace talks. This has created huge confusion about the government’s position on fighting militant violence and the nature of the threat confronted by the country.

The peace talks would apparently be conducted by a tribal jirga under the supervision of the newly appointed governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, providing some kind of official sanction to the initiative. Although the formal negotiations have yet to start because of the non-response from the army leadership, the declaration seems