PESHAWAR: A senior Afghan Taliban leader on Wednesday urged the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamabad to get together and negotiate for peace, acknowledging that the actions of an outlawed militant organization within Pakistan were causing the international community to place blame on Afghanistan.
Muhammad Nabi Omari, the deputy interior minister of the Taliban government in transition in Afghanistan, said during an iftar event in the southeast town of Khost, “We ask the government of Pakistan and advise the brothers (TTP) who are fighting with them to come together and talk.”
In private, the Afghan Taliban have been pushing Pakistan and the TTP to hold direct talks in order to put an end to the conflict, which has been raging for more than 20 years and resulted in thousands of deaths and widespread population displacement in the tribal area that borders Afghanistan.
However, this is the first time a prominent member of the Afghan Taliban has opted to address the public on the matter, criticizing the militant organization and advocating for direct communication between Islamabad and the TTP.
Omari adds in rare statements that the situation in Afghanistan is impacted by the rise of conflict in Pakistan.
Past attempts by the Afghan interim government to “facilitate” discussions between the parties have resulted in impasse, leading Islamabad to charge Kabul of offering refuge and to demand that it take action against the insurgent group.
In an effort to solve Pakistan’s domestic security issues, the Afghan Taliban have been adamantly denying that the TTP is operating on Afghan territory.
Since Pakistan launched airstrikes in Khost and Paktika in retribution for the deaths of seven of its soldiers in a suicide bombing in North Waziristan in March, relations between the two nations have been tense.
“We have witnessed both war and revolution,” Afghan media source ToloNews reported Omari as saying. He declared, “These wars and revolutions destroy homelands, leave behind widows and orphans, and ruin the economy.”
The deputy interior minister remarked, “Now the world makes excuses that terrorists are present here [in Afghanistan] and Al Qaeda exists.” Omari declared, “I swear, according to our information, there isn’t a single Al-Qaeda member in Afghanistan.”
Nonetheless, the deputy interior minister made no mention of the TTP’s existence in Afghanistan.
