The deputy commander of the Pakistan Taliban confirmed the two sides were in peace talks.
“Our talks are going in the right direction,” Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, the commander of the Pakistani Taliban in the Bajaur tribal agency and the No. 2 commander overall, told Reuters.
“If negotiations succeed and we are able to sign a peace agreement in Bajaur, then the government and the Taliban of other areas such as Swat, Mohmand, Orakzai and South Waziristan tribal region will sign an agreement. Bajaur will be a role model for other areas.”
“There has been development in our peace talks, but the government would have to show more flexibility in its stance, and restore the trust of Taliban by releasing their prisoners and stop military operations against them.”
Mohammad said Pakistan had released 145 members of the group as a gesture of goodwill, and the fighters had pledged a cease-fire. He added that Pakistan and Afghanistan should unite against foreign occupations by non-Muslims.
At the end of September, Pakistan’s government pledged to “give peace a chance”.
There was no immediate comment from the administration on whether talks were taking place.
Mohammad said the government has realised that there is no military solution to the conflict in Pakistan.
“We have no wish to fight against our own armed forces and destroy our own country”, he said.
The TTP, allied with the Afghan Taliban movement fighting U.S.-led occupation in Afghanistan, is entrenched in the unruly areas along the porous frontier. It pledged to overthrow the Pakistani government after the military started US-backed operations against the TTP.
He heads the TTP faction based in Bajaur, at the northeast end of the Pashtun belt along the border. The army launched an offensive in Bajaur in August 2008 and largely cleared the region after months of at times heavy fighting.
Source: Reuters
Comments