Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shireen Mazari has claimed that former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa wanted to resettle members of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and their families following the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of Kabul.
“General Bajwa raised the issue (of Taliban) on one occasion. General Faiz was also present. (He said) that there are families of Pakistani nationality in TTP who want to return to the country,” Mazari said during an interview with a private TV channel.
“If they surrender and accept the constitution, then some sort of resettlement must be negotiated,” she quoted the former army chief as saying.
Also read: Imran urges president to order inquiry against former COAS Bajwa
Mazari’s remarks come in the wake of an uptick in terrorist attacks across Pakistan.
On Friday, heavily-armed TTP terrorists wearing suicide vests attacked the Karachi Police Office located on the city’s main artery, martyring two policemen and a Sindh Rangers trooper and injuring 16 others.
The attack—which came weeks after a suicide bomber martyed at least 61 people, mostly policemen, during prayers at a mosque in Peshawar—once again ignited fears of another wave of terrorism in the country which had been crushed during successful military operations in recent years.
The resurgence of the banned terrorist outfit is being blamed on the PTI government—which was outsted in April last year through a no-trust vote after three-and-a-half years in power—for allowing thousands of TTP militants and their families to resettle in the country.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan blames then-COAS General (retd) Bajwa for the “regime change”, terming it a “conspiracy” against their party and the nation.
Read more: Imran say he “drew flak while Bajwa called the shots“
PTI leader Mazari continued with criticism of the former army chief in her interview on Saturday, this time putting the blame of resettling TTP militants and their families on the former army chief.
She said that a meeitng was called since Bajwa’s resettlement proposal was criticised by elected PTI members.
“It was decided that, before starting negotiations, a committee would be formed to establish a consensus between the elected representatives and the military as our people had many concerns,” she said.
Mazari said that PTI had demanded that there should be consensus before proceeding with negotiate with the TTP. However, she regretted that PTI government was ousted soon after and the new government did not care about who to talk to.
The former federal minister asserted that blame for the failure to deal with the TTP will fall on the shoulders of the “imported government”—a reference to the current Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government—and not on the PTI.
She said that former ISI chief General (retd) Faiz visited Afghanistan to talk to the interim Afghan government and not with the Taliban.
