Taliban Resurgence In Swat Stokes Fear.

PESHAWAR -- The resurgence of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the KP chief minister's native area - Matta tehsil in Swat district, has raised concerns. However, local sources say that there is no specific area being ruled by the Taliban in Swat but they have appeared in the region in the wake of ongoing talks between them and the government of Pakistan.

In a recent video in Swat, the TTP has declared that they have returned to Swat because of their ceasefire with the government in the ongoing talks and that they do not have any enmity with police or other security forces as there is a ceasefire in place.

The recent clash between the Taliban and police hit headlines in media. Later, the Taliban also handed over several cops captured in the shoot-out. The Taliban also declared that they have come to their native area of Swat after several years as a result of the ceasefire announced by them and government in the wake of talks that are underway in Afghanistan in the arbitration of the Afghan Taliban, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

A senior security official told this scribe that the Afghan Taliban are interested in ceasefire between the government of Pakistan and TTP. 'The Afghan Taliban also want the TTP to return to Pakistan; they want the talks to become successful,' he added.

Swat district does not share border with Afghanistan. However, the Afghan border is in Medan area of Lower Dir district, wherefrom Matta area of Swat can be reached. Medan area is also the native area of Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the erstwhile chief of the Tehreek Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) who had launched his Sharia movement in the 1990s.

Maulana Khan Zeb, a tribal elder from Bajaur district who is also part of the Jirga that has been in talks with the TTP in Afghanistan, told The Nation that the talks were going in a positive direction but that the negotiations have not reached a final decision yet.

'Any final decisions will be taken as per the Constitution of Pakistan,' he added.

To a query if the Taliban have recently returned to Swat in the light of the Jirga decisions, he said that the Jirga had not reached any conclusion yet but that it may be an individual decision of the Swat Taliban to visit their native area in the wake of the ceasefire reached in the talks.

Genesis of the conflict:

The conflict in the Swat Valley had been simmering since the early 1990s and can be partly attributed to the establishment of Maulana Sufi Mohammad's TNSM in 1992. The...