Daily Times Editorial Aug 26, 2013

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan split In an interesting development, fissures, if not a split, have opened up within the ranks of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Ismatullah Muaviya, head of the TTP Punjab, has been removed for welcoming Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s offer of dialogue with the militants in his address to the country the other day. The TTP spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid (the replacement for dismissed spokesman Ihsanullah Ehsan) said Hakeemullah Mehsud, the overall chief of the TTP, had chaired a meeting of the TTP’s decision making top body where it was agreed to not only remove Muaviya but also declare he had nothing further to do with the TTP, notwithstanding the respect he was held in. The TTP spokesman went into a detailed response to the prime minister’s offer, saying Nawaz Sharif was talking about talks and the use of force in the same breath. Therefore the TTP had rejected the talks offer and Muaviya had made the statement of support without a mandate from the TTP leadership. In response, Muaviya hit back by saying the TTP under Hakeemullah had no authority to dismiss him as the Punjabi Taliban (Muaviya’s faction) were independent and had their own decision making shura. An unnamed security official weighed into the controversy by arguing that at a tactical and ground level, the ‘split’ would not make any difference since the two groups operate autonomously. Others are categorizing the split as giving birth to two factions: the TTP Tribals (Hakeemullah and the TTP largely based in FATA, especially North Waziristan) and the TTP Punjab. This is apparently the latest in a series of differences between Hakeemullah and Muaviya, the latter being castigated by the former’s faction with not carrying out instructions to mount attacks in his home base Punjab. Muaviya is described as a pragmatist, inclined to use both force and dialogue to attain his aims. He comes from a background of being part of Jaish-e-Mohammad, which he quit and formed his own group Janude Hafsa, suspected of being behind the killing of foreign mountain climbers at the foot of Nanga Parbat in June this year. He spent time in North Waziristan, where he shifted along with his group after the Jamia Hafsa episode in Islamabad in July 2007. The same unnamed security official quoted above says the two groups only share North Waziristan as an operating base, otherwise they have always been independent of each other. While it is tempting to celebrate any sign of dissidence or a falling out amongst the plethora of terrorist groups assailing state and society, perhaps too much should not be read into it as the TTP has never been more than an umbrella group to which various factions owe only nominal allegiance. This certainly seems to be the case in the Punjabi Taliban’s falling out with Hakeemullah’s faction. While the security official may be right that this will make little difference at the operational level, it is nevertheless a welcome political development since any such splits are to the advantage of the state. The Hakeemullah TTP has not only underlined the ‘expulsion’ of Muaviya, it has even gone so far as to assert that it had lost trust in the Jamaat-e-Islami’s Munawar Hassan and the JUI-F’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman since it now regards both as part of the government. So if the hardcore body of the TTP is splitting along ‘regional’ lines, and the hardliners are losing faith in the ‘moderate’ mainstream religious parties that are seen as the ‘soft’ face of the jihadi ‘family’, surely this is all to the good. Nevertheless, there is little room for complacency while concern continues on the seeming confusion within the ranks of the government on its approach to the terrorists. While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was subtler in offering both talks and the threat of force against the terrorists, Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali, still fresh from wounds suffered during the Islamabad ‘siege’, says only dialogue is being contemplated by the government. Whether this is a tactical position to give dialogue a chance or actual strategic belief, only time will tell. In the meantime, such mixed signals from the top leadership of the government suggest there is still some way to go before the politicians in power speak with the same voice, let alone laying to rest (as Chaudhry Nisar tried to do) concerns over the military being in agreement with the government on the strategy against the terrorists. The government and the military need to clear the air and operationalise their plans before the confusion becomes worse confounded. Much precious time has already been lost. The country cannot afford more procrastination. The national security policy and its implementation on the gr be the government and the military’s top priority.