Peshawar: Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday claimed that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leadership has welcomed its appeal for calling back militants from the Swat district. Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Special Assistant to Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Information, had made the appeal to the TTP leadership two days back during his interaction with the reporters in Swat district.
"The TTP leaders have welcomed my personal appeal about withdrawal of TTP warriors from Swat district," Barrister Saif told reporters on Friday. The TTP media wing has issued a statement to this effect, he claimed. The move has created a hope of peaceful settlement of the issue with the banned outfit about establishing public order in Swat and tribal district.
To a question, Barristor Saif alleged that the country's "Defence Minister Khwaja Asif was politicising the Swat issue for personal political gains like Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif who did politics over flooding in the KPK Province." He termed statements of the federal ministers regarding KPK government as an effort of the federal government to impose Governor's Rule in the province.
The KPK government on Thursday categorically denied reports about reaching any deal with the TTP. KPK government recently held a meeting with the local commanders of the TTP about ending the menace of terrorism in the province, Saif said Thursday.
Adding that the talks had created an impression on social media that the provincial government had reached a deal with the militant group about handing over some areas in Malakand division and former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to the militant group. Saif stressed that the information doing rounds of social media was incorrect and that there was no such understanding with the militant outfit that demands the imposition of Sharia law across Pakistan. (PTI)
