Pakistan Moves to End Policy on ‘Good Taliban’

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 20 (NsNewsWire) — In the wake of the Peshawar school massacre, some U.S. and Afghan officials are beginning to express optimism that Pakistan may finally be changing its decadeslong policy of supporting jihadist groups.

Pakistan’s military for several months has been moving away from the policy, under which these militant groups have long been used by the country’s spy agencies and security establishment against India and Afghanistan, reports WSJ.

Then Tuesday’s attack by Pakistani Taliban gunmen at the school in Peshawar led Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to declare that there would be no more “good Taliban,” an acknowledgment of the country’s ambivalent attitude that has nurtured some militant groups even while fighting others. All militants “would be dealt equally with an iron hand,” Mr. Sharif said.

The prime minister also lifted a seven-year-old moratorium on the death penalty, only for terrorists, following the attack. On Friday, two convicted militants were executed, said officials at the Faisalabad prison where the death sentence was carried out.