Pakistan’s outlawed terror group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has warned Pakistani media to stop addressing them as a terrorist and their group as a terror organisation. A  statement released by the group, has advised the Pakistani journalists not to force the TTP to treat them as enemies.

“We see you call us terrorists and use disgusting titles for us like extremists which is clear proof that you are biased in this war. It is also a stain on your journalistic career and you can’t answer globally why you publish a story of a war between two sides in a way that favours only one.

Therefore, from today onward we should be called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan otherwise you will be abandoning journalism and helping to make an enemy yourself,” the TTP says in it read out.

The TTP’s ultimatum  comes a day after  Pakistan held a meeting of envoys from China, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to discuss the stability of Afghanistan following the US withdrawal. But  Pakistan’s major concern is an emboldened TTP, which claimed responsibility for recent terrorist attacks on Pakistani forces  including the latest one, which targeted a security  check post in Quetta on Sunday. In a post on Twitter, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the TTP attack and paid tribute to security forces for “thwarting foreign-backed terrorist designs.” The TTP has a running feud with the Pakistani military after it launched operation Zarb- e -Azb in 2014, which targeted the group, forcing many of its cadres to flee into neighbouring Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, where they regrouped.

The attack took place on Sunday when ISI chief Faiz Hameed was in Kabul to meet the Taliban top leadership. During the meeting he raised the issue of the TTP which has renewed  allegiance to the Taliban and since then has stepped up its attacks against the Pakistani army.

Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson of the Taliban also acknowledged that the "DG ISI General Faiz Hameed raised the issue with the Taliban about the recently released TTP prisoners. Hameed and his accompanying delegation were concerned about the presence of the released TTP prisoners in Pakistan. They were worried about the remaining TTP fighters crossing from Afghanistan and launching lethal attacks on its territory. The Taliban reassured them that they will not allow their territory to be used by anyone planning attacks on Pakistan or any other country.

But the Pakistani security establishment is worried because they know that the Afghan Taliban and TTP are now two sides of a coin. The Afghan Taliban has already told Pakistan that TTP is not for Afghanistan to resolve and  must be sorted out by the Pakistani government itself, along with its religious Ulemas.

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