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Kabul: General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army, said that the country’s army is considering taking a tougher position against the Tehreek-e-Taliban (Pakistani Taliban).
According to Pakistan’s media, General Bajwa, the commander of the Pakistan Army, said at the 250th Corps Commanders’ Conference, which is a monthly program at the country’s general headquarters, that “organizations to maintain operational readiness and efforts to counter terrorism, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan should continue.”
Currently, the two sides observe a three-month ceasefire, and the representatives of the Pakistani government and the TTP are still conducting peace talks with the mediation of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani newspaper “Dawn” wrote that General Bajwa’s statements regarding the continuation of operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were made against the backdrop of increasing public dissatisfaction with the return of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan fighters.
This is despite the fact that Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, the leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, had announced that if their talks with the Pakistani government fail, they will continue their attacks against Pakistan’s security forces.
In the latest phase, earlier this month, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan fighters clashed with Pakistani forces in Mata area of Swat.
Also, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has blamed the country’s security forces for killing two of its fighters in North Waziristan.
In a statement earlier this week, the group warned the Pakistani government that its patience had run out and that it would attack military personnel in these areas if the talks ended without results.
In the announcement of the Pakistan Army, it is said that General Bajwa simultaneously emphasized on the continuation of the peace talks that are going on in Afghanistan.
According to the data of Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, last year Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan carried out 95 attacks in this country, which resulted in 140 deaths.
Pakistani officials and experts have said that with the seizure of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has also increased its activities.
Meanwhile, the negotiations between the government of Pakistan and the Tehreek-e-Taliban of Pakistan started with the mediation of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Acting Minister of Interior of the Taliban government in Kabul and it is said that it is still going on.
The leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan says that their main demand is to cancel the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. The government of Pakistan merged the two regions in 2008.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan was founded at the end of 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan.
