Talking to Terror Czar Sufi

Dawn Editorial
Its time for Pakistani Army to shoot him
The government must not be tricked into halting a military operation.

A Government emissary who represented the Frontier administration in the first round of talks with the TNSM felt that Friday’s meeting was ‘fruitful’. He went further, adding that it was held in a ‘pleasant atmosphere’. Such woolly descriptions convey little of real import, other than that the parleys were not stillborn and that further rounds may be on the cards.

Given that the two sides may have achieved little else other than break the ice, it would be futile at this point to arrive at any firm conclusions as to what the talks may produce. As such it is necessary to focus instead on what the focal point should be of any further interaction with Sufi Mohammad’s Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi, which is acting as a go-between the Swat Taliban and the NWFP government Islamabad and the NWFP authorities came in for a lot of flak both at home and abroad when it was decided by the centre to accept the Taliban’s demand for Nizam-i-Adl, or Sharia law, in Malakand Division. Criticism of the government’s move was valid in more ways than one. But the demerits — and they are many — of the Nizam-i-Adl Ordinance are not under discussion here. The point is that the authorities remained true to their word while Sufi Mohammad did not.

The TNSM chief had promised that a large number of militants would lay down arms in a public ceremony following the ordinance’s enactment. This, it was felt, would send a strong signal to the Swat Taliban at large. The government went so far as to accept Sufi’s demand that the militants would surrender their arms to a qazi, not the government or the military. Within hours, however, he addressed a public rally in Swat in which he aired the view that the constitution, the higher judiciary and democracy itself were all un-Islamic.

What he had promised to do was ask militants to come forth and lay down arms. This volte-face suggests that Sufi Mohammad either carries no real clout with the militants, is simply playing politics or is part and parcel of the Taliban, albeit with a softer image.
Sufi’s double-dealing was one the catalysts for the military’s telling offensive in Dir and Buner. Now that they are on the back foot, relatively speaking, the Taliban and the TNSM are ready for talks again. There must be no compromises this time round: halting military operations simply cannot be on the agenda.

The government must focus on one point alone: the Malakand Taliban have to disarm as promised at the earliest. If that doesn’t happen, there ought to be no further discussion of any sort with the militants or their representatives. The government and its security apparatus must not be tricked into halting a military operation that is clearly the need of the hour.