ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Monday lamented Islamabad's previous "appeasement policy" towards militants, saying that a "consistent" approach was needed to defeat the menace in the South Asian country.
Pakistan has seen a rise in attacks in its western provinces bordering Afghanistan since a fragile truce between Islamabad and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or Pakistani Taliban militants, broke down in November 2022. The TTP, which claims it has thousands of fighters and supporters in Pakistan and Afghanistan, shares some ideological affinity with the Afghan Taliban but are a separate group altogether.
Former prime minister Imran Khan's government was against taking military action against the TTP before using exhausting other options. Khan has publicly claimed his government was considering resettling thousands of Pakistani tribal fighters who had returned to the country's tribal areas from Afghanistan after the US-led coalition forces pulled out from the war-torn country in 2021. Former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also criticized Khan for holding talks with militants, saying his government had the "wrong approach" towards militancy.
Speaking at an event in Islamabad, Bugti vowed Pakistan would defeat "terrorism" once and for all.
"Where does the problem lie? We have only one problem, which we call appeasement policy," Bugti said. "We don't have the consistency [that is required to battle militancy], we had to again fight a war that was already won because we were not consistent."
He said the fault lay with Pakistan's ruling elite, rather than the masses, for being confused when it came to battling "terrorism." The interior minister added that only the state could exercise the right to carry out violence.
"If anyone has chosen the path to violence, we will cut that arm," the minister warned. "We should not let that hand reach our necks, and that responsibility Allah has given to the uniformed people."
Bugti hailed Pakistani law enforcers, saying that they were chosen by God to lay down their lives for the sake of the country.
Relations between the new Taliban administration and Pakistan have soured in recent months, mainly due to the former’s unwillingness to take action against the Pakistani Taliban militants. Afghanistan has rejected Pakistan's allegations that militants use its soil to carry out attacks in Pakistan and has said Islamabad's security issues are its internal problems.