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| Army denies talks with Mehsud |
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Monday, August 03, 2009
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: With sections of the foreign media reporting that the government was again holding peace talks with Baitullah Mehsud, a high-ranking military official refuted the reports by categorically stating that the time to seek a truce with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) head was past.
Reports have recently appeared in the British and US media about renewed contacts between the government emissaries and Baitullah. The reports claimed that Baitullah had agreed to halt suicide bombings in return for a government promise not to launch a big military operation against him in his native South Waziristan. It was suggested in these reports that Afghan Taliban were mediating between him and the government.
The Army officer, who wished not be named, told The News such reports were being spread by pro-militant sources to create confusion in the country and abroad. He felt Baitullah and his supporters might be wishing that the government and the military approach him again for peace talks.
“This cannot happen now. Both the civil and military authorities have concluded that Baitullah is an enemy of Pakistan and must be dealt with accordingly,” he stressed. He argued the armed forces had disrupted the militants’ network run by Baitullah and his allied groups by arresting key figures, seizing weapons and taking control of some of their training centres and safe houses. He said the terrorists’ ability to carry out suicide bombings in urban areas had diminished. He thought Baitullah and his commanders did not have an endless supply of suicide bombers. “Besides trying to bottle up Baitullah’s men and area in South Waziristan from three sides to prevent his supplies, the Army also carried out action against his allied groups in different places, including Shah Hasankhel village, in Lakki Marwat district. Better security in cities and on roads had also affected the mobility of Baitullah’s men,” the military official said.
He pointed out people like Baitullah wanted to control the territory and enhance their power. He said it was futile to talk to someone whose demands keep growing and who is irreconcilable. “Let me assure you that there have been no talks recently with Baitullah. It is now out of question,” he maintained. He added the Army would carry out a major offensive against Baitullah at the time of its choice.
A senior bureaucrat looking after Fata also said no peace talks were taking place with Baitullah. He said he checked with the military authorities after hearing reports that the two sides could be holding talks again. “But I was assured that it was a closed chapter as there was no need for holding peace talks with Baitullah,” he added.
Maulana Saleh Shah, a senator from South Waziristan belonging to Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI-F, said he was unaware of any peace talks with Baitullah. “Every day 20 to 25 people, mostly tribesmen from South Waziristan, ask me if these reports were true. Our people have left their homes fearing fighting in the area and they are keen to find out if peace talks with Baitullah were taking place,” he told The News. Senator Saleh Shah has been part of a tribal Jirga in the past that mediated between the government and Baitullah.
However, another Maulana from South Waziristan said on condition of anonymity that he was aware that contact was made with Baitullah by certain mediators but no peace deal could be struck.
The fact that a number of displaced Mehsud tribal families had recently gone back to their villages in South Waziristan also contributed to speculations that the expected ground offensive by the military in the Baitullah-controlled areas had been put off due to peace talks between the two sides. But Mehsud tribal elders argued that those families decided to return to South Waziristan after facing harassment at the hands of law-enforcement and intelligence agencies in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.
“Some of them said they were willing to die in bombing by fighters in South Waziristan than getting kidnapped and harassed in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan,” a Mehsud elder recalled. Though the Army hasn’t launched a ground offensive in South Waziristan yet, bombing by air force jets and shelling by artillery guns against Baitullah’s hideouts is continuing. Reports from the area said jets again carried out bombing of some places in the Mehsud tribal territory in South Waziristan on Saturday.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
