Govt succumbs to TTP threats?
Repeated warnings by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan that the executions of jailed militants would compel the TTP to wage a war against the PML-N leadership seem to have worked, with the government taking a U-turn on its previous declaration that it was determined to carry out death sentences because it was key to deterring the rising militancy and terrorism engulfing Pakistan.
A government spokesman has already confirmed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s orders to halt the carrying out of the death sentences in the country till further orders. The decision came hardly a few days after the Ameer of the Punjabi Taliban, Asmatullh Muavia, had warned that the executions would compel them to wage a war against the PML-N.
His warning was followed by another threatening statement released by a TTP spokesman, saying a highly-trained squad of suicide bombers had been constituted to target two key figures of the PML-N (most likely the Sharif brothers) if Aqeel alias Dr Usman was hanged in Faisalabad jail as per schedule on August 23. “The homes of prominent PML-N leaders will be attacked immediately if Aqeel is sent to the gallows. The leadership of the PML-N will be our target, just like we had targeted the ANP leadership,” the TTP spokesman warned.
In fact, some leading commanders of the TTP and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were set to be sent to the gallows in Sindh and Punjab respectively between August 20 and August 25.
But a government spokesman has been quoted by the media as saying that President Asif Zardari had sent a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saying he wanted to meet him to discuss the long-pending death sentence of hundreds of convicted prisoners.
The spokesman said that as the date of executions was approaching and the president was abroad, the prime minister has directed the Ministry of Interior to hold the execution of the death sentences till the conclusion of the meeting between him and the president. He also pointed out that several international human rights groups had appealed to the Pakistan government not to resume executions after a moratorium on the death penalty expired in June.
However, before taking the latest U-turn on death sentences, Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan had stated on August 14 in Islamabad that the new government is determined to establish the writ of law.
“There is a huge backlog of 450 cases of death sentences and we are processing them as fast as we can. We will continue the process to implement the execution orders of the hardened terrorists so that the law may take its course,” he said.
On his part, Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed was quoted by the media as saying on August 15 that the death sentences had been awarded by courts and not the PML-N.
He said the courts were rightly displeased with the dragging of feet on the hanging the criminals, who have been sentenced and who have exhausted the right of appeal a long time ago.
The News had already indicated on August 15 that the government was seriously contemplating to defer the looming hanging of two jailed militants of the al-Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in the wake of the threats hurled by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Those being sent to the gallows included Attaullah alias Qasim and Mohammad Azam alias Sharif.
They had been sentenced to death after being found guilty of killing a Shia doctor Ali Raza Peerani in Karachi in 2001 and the principal of Jamia Millia Polytechnic Institute, Malir, Zafar Mehdi Zaidi, his driver and peon way back in 2002. Another key jehadi commander who was to be executed in Faisalabad on August 23 is Aqeel Ahmed alias Dr Usman who had led a 10-member fidayeen squad to attack the GHQ building in Rawalpindi on October 10, 2009.
Against the backdrop of reports about their imminent executions, the Taliban had warned through a pamphlet distributed in South and North Waziristan on August 14: “If the jailed prisoners are executed, it would amount to a declaration of war on the part of the government”.
According to well informed security circles, the government’s decision to halt the execution of death sentences was primarily meant to avoid a possible backlash from the TTP which had threatened to shift the focus of its terrorist activities to Punjab if the militants were hanged.
The security circles did not rule out the possibility of fresh efforts for a peace treaty between the two sides. The TTP had already named Nawaz Sharif as a guarantor in January this year to ensure that any future peace deal with the government is not violated by the Army.
Nawaz Sharif, in an interview with the BBC after winning the 2008 general elections had stated that his government needed to take the TTP’s offer of talks seriously as that issue could only be solved through negotiations. And the TTP had appreciated Sharif’s conciliatory stance.
But the million-dollar question remains: Is Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a position to give an assurance to the TTP that their peace deal would not be violated by the Army?
Govt succumbs to TTP threats? - thenews.com.pk
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