The National Security Committee (NSC), the top forum for cooperation on security concerns, recently met and resolved that there will be "no negotiations with any terrorist or militant organisation," according to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah.
- Terrorist assaults have increased in Pakistan; it is thought that the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commanders headquartered in Afghanistan planned and oversaw these attacks.
- Around 100 assaults were carried out by the TTP last year; the majority of them took place after August, when the group's peace negotiations with the Pakistani government started to sputter. The TTP shares ideological ties with the Afghan Taliban. The TTP publicly broke the ceasefire on November 28.
- The interior minister was questioned about the clear threat made by the TTP to the PPP and the PML-N for "openly declaring war on the TTP to placate America" during a news conference on Thursday in Islamabad.
- The TTP cautioned religious parties against "actions against us" and specifically identified PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and their respective parties.
- The proscribed TTP will first need to lay down their weapons and surrender in front of the law and the Constitution, according to the interior minister's statement from yesterday.
- Sanaullah stated at the press briefing today that the NSC had made it very clear that "no conversations with any terrorist or militant organisation" will take place.
