Pakistani analysts criticize CNN for airing TTP leader's interview

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 1 August 2021

The CNN interview with TTP leader Noor Wali Mehsud has sparked controversy among Pakistani analysts. They argue it legitimizes a designated terrorist organization.

Summary

ISLAMABAD—An interview of the leader of a designated terrorist organization with the CNN, an American news channel, has generated a lot of heat. Questions are being asked about the timing of its airing and whether it was aimed at stirring instability in Pakistan, as the US forces withdraw from Afghanistan, state-owned newswire APP reported.

In a CNN exclusive, Noor Wali Mehsud, the leader of Pakistan's Tehreek-i-Taliban, discusses the group's relationship with Afghanistan's Taliban in his first television interview.

However, Pakistani analysts termed CNN’s interview of Noor Wali Mehsud an attempt to legitimize the terrorist organization and place it parallel to the Afghan Taliban, despite the fact that TTP was a US-designated terrorist organization, already neutralized by Pakistan, while the United States and other countries were holding negotiations with the Afghan Taliban.

“Does CNN give airtime to all UN-designated global terrorists or made an exception in the case of Afghanistan-based most wanted terrorist leader of the TTP responsible for deadly attacks against Pakistan, including the massacre of our children,” tweeted Sana Jamal, an Islamabad-based journalist.

Lt Gen (Retd) Shafaat Shah, former corps commander Lahore and Ambassador of Pakistan to Jordan, said the TTP was a banned organization by the US and here its terrorist leader was giving an interview on CNN.

“(It) shows contacts, sponsorships by Afghan Intelligence, RAW & CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), otherwise CNN team would not have got access to him,” the former ambassador said.

The TTP leader’s interview also revived the memories of the gruesome attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, in which 150 people, including 134 schoolchildren, were massacred.

The people on Twitter are of the view that any effort by the media to resuscitate the TTP by portraying it as a legitimate and freedom fighter organization would have devastating consequences for the region.

KEY POINTS:

• CNN interviewed TTP leader Noor Wali Mehsud amid US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
• Analysts claim the interview aims to legitimize the TTP despite its terrorist designation.
• Critics highlight the connection between the TTP and Afghan intelligence services.
• The interview revives memories of the tragic Army Public School attack in Peshawar.
• Concerns grow over the media's portrayal of the TTP as a legitimate group.