Pakistan Taliban group lost support after attack on school

LAHORE, Pakistan, March 3 (News Lens Pakistan) -- A December Taliban attack on Peshawar schoolchildren has harmed the group's standing among the mainstream population as former supporters with similar ideology condemn the act.

Taliban militants on Dec. 16 killed about 150 people -- 134 of them children -- in an attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility after the fact. Various religious and political parties that had defended the TTP, directly or indirectly through public platforms or in the media, have since the school attack come out and condemned the group.

Maulana Fazl ur Rehman, head of the religious Jamiat Ulema Pakistan party who was named last year by the TTP as its representative in talks with the government, said the Peshawar attack humiliated Islam. He condemned the attack in a Jan. 23 phone interview with News Lens Pakistan.

"This incident went against the very spirit of jihad, and killers cannot be called Muslims," he said, "The incident was barbaric and the worst in history, ending any chance of negotiation with Taliban terrorists in the future, as well."

The Pakistan Security Report 2014 published by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, an Islamabad think tank, said 2,530 militants were killed in Pakistan in 130 military operations last year, and 1,723 people were killed in terrorist attacks.

The Jamaat-e-Islami, one of Pakistan's oldest political parties representing Muslims' religious interests and a strong supporter of TTP, was also clear in its condemnation. The party's secretary general, Liaqat Baloch, said Jan. 23 in Lahore, "We never, ever support Taliban act of killing women and children. The government should award exemplary punishment to the murderers."

He went on to tell News Lens Pakistan by phone, "all our prayers are with the departed souls and none of our leaders supports the Taliban strategy."

In the same way, leaders of banned militant organizations have also condemned the killing of schoolchildren.

In an interview with News Lens Pakistan, Yahya Mujahid, spokesman for Jamat-ud-Dawa whose bank accounts were frozen under the government's counterterrorism National Action Plan, framed after the Peshawar attacks, said the killing of the children was a clear violation of the Koran and Islamic teachings.

"We condemn the incident and do not consider those who butchered children Muslims, and our sympathies are with the victims," Mujahid said. Mujahid posted poetry, pictures, quotes from the Prophet Muhammad, and Koran verses on his Facebook and Twitter accounts opposing the killing of children in Peshawar and symbolized sympathy with the dead.

While most experts believe the Peshawar attack was a turning point for TTP supporters, some are not convinced these statements represent a real shift for the parties and militant groups.

Ayesha Siddiqa, an independent military analyst, said, "The state must not fall into the traps of hypocrites who condemn tragedies like Peshawar as a result of public pressure."

"Their hearts and minds are the same as the Taliban. Supporters and sympathizers of Taliban must be dealt with with an iron hand without any discrimination as per the National Action Plan. There is no other panacea of terrorism. Otherwise it will prevail forever," she said.