Since the joint meeting of Pakistan’s government, military officials and all major political parties of the country approved talks with the Pakistani Taliban, the militant groups in Pakistan have continued to target minority groups and security forces of the country. The recent attack on the Christian minority group of Pakistan shocked the nation and brought the government-led efforts to resume talks with the militant groups in the spotlight. The two major bomb blasts that targeted a church in the Pakistani city of Peshawar killed at least 80 people wounding dozens of others. The attack on one of the most vulnerable non-Muslim communities of Pakistan has been widely condemned by Pakistani political parties and religious figures.

The attack on Pakistani Christian minority group is coming only a few days after Pakistan’s major political parties approved Nawaz Sharif’s initiative to talk with the militant groups in order to end the militancy ravaging in the country for about a decade. In his route to the United Nations headquarter in New York to attend the UN General Assembly, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sahrif said the attack in Peshawar did not bode well for the negotiations with the militant groups. Pakistan’s prime minister, who has long been an advocate of talks with the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups to bring peace in the country, knows very well that such attacks could derail the initiative he started to end the militancy in the country.

In the last decade, Pakistan has been a hotspot of insurgency and militancy not only organizing attacks against NATO and Afghan forces in neighboring Afghanistan but also attacking Pakistani security forces and government’s interests. In recent years, however, the militancy has taken an enormous toll from minority groups as attacks on these communities have seen a sharp rise. The wave of attacks on minority communities has been such intense that the situation is bordering a real crisis in the country regarding the inter-ethnic coexistence and social harmony. Many label Pakistan as the safe haven of terrorist groups.

In his speech in the grand session of political parties of Pakistan in Islamabad, Nawaz Sahrif stressed that the country was the scene of violence and militancy, and that there is no ground for the country’s political parties to play politics over the issue. Perhaps it not only Sharif who understands the enormity of the situation in his country, but also other senior political figures and major parties is concluding the same judgment. Former Pakistani president Parviz Musharraf even jeopardized his very own political capital to fight the Islamist militant groups.

In his attempt to start peace talks with the militant groups, Pakistan’s Prime Minister is facing a number of hard-line militant groups which in many cases are opposing each other. Among the militant groups, there are also groups such as the banned Lashkar-e Jhangvi and Al-Qaeda which are active in the country, but it is almost impossible for Islamabad to include them in the talks. The Pakistani government is counting on talks with the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and some other groups which are more leaning towards peaceful engagement with the Pakistani government.

Despite that some Pakistani militant groups have welcomed the recent moves by Nawaz Sharif’s government to begin talks with the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, many others sub-groups that are not willing to enter to talks with Nawaz Sharif’s government and press for targeting military and government targets. Nawaz Sahrif started well in garnering support from various political parties of the country – including religious parties such as the one led by Mulana Fazl Mohammad – to enter in talks with the TTP and other Punjab-based Islamist groups who are fighting against the Pakistani forces. But, gradually it emerges that his plan for talks with the Islamist groups would be much more complicated than what is being decided in Islamabad.

One of the reasons for that is that the Pakistani government is not facing a monolithic insurgent umbrella group, rather there are many major and sub-groups operating under the umbrella group of the TTP or in the rival groups based in North Waziristan and Punjab. After Sahrif’s moves to enter talks with Pakistani Taliban, some Punjab-rooted sub-groups have welcomed the move, while the TTP as the main umbrella group has put forward preconditions for talks that Nawaz Sahrif’s government is finding it very difficult to accept. The conditions put forward by the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan are complete withdrawal of the army forces from the north-western tribal areas and release of the Taliban senior members in prisons.

However, there could be no guarantee from the militant groups based in northwestern tribal agencies of Pakistan that if the army starts to withdraw from the region, the Islamist groups won’t seize the areas and try to expand their control as they did many years ago before the invasion of Pakistan army against the Taliban in Swat and neighboring areas. In his attempts for talks with militant groups, Pakistani Prime Minister also needs to convince the powerful military establishment that his efforts to compromise with the Islamists will work. Pakistan’s security establishment is concerned that if the army withdraws from the tribal areas, where the militants have high influence and dominant presence, it may provide the chance for the militant groups to restructure and strengthen their control in the areas and against the security forces.

However, since Prime Minister Sharif has managed to build an extensive political consensus among the key stakeholders in Islamabad, the option cannot be ruled out that Pakistan’s government may move to secure some sorts of agreement with the Taliban that includes security arrangements and guarantees for security of the region after the withdrawal of the army. Given the diversity of the Pakistan’s militant groups and their agendas, the Pakistani government will never be able to secure any kinds of deals with some of the hard-line groups from the hodgepodge networks of militants which are well active in terrorist attacks across the country. And, it will remain a mystery that how the Nawaz Sharif’s administration is going to manage securing a long-lasting deal with the major militant groups such as the TTP based in northwestern Pakistan and others in Punjab.