Peace process: Still willing to talk ‘if govt ends hostility’, says TTP

ISLAMABAD / MIRAMSHAH: A day after the government gave security forces the go-ahead to target insurgents in self-defence, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) signalled it was still willing to talk peace if the government declares a ceasefire. “Our doors are open for talks … [but] the government needs to stop killing our comrades,” the TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a joint news conference on Friday, alongside TTP South Waziristan chapter leader Azam Tariq Mehsud. “Since the government started the war against us, it should declare ceasefire before asking us to do so.” In a news briefing on Thursday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar announced that the prime minister had decided to call off peace talks following a surge in unrest across the country. “Dialogue and violence cannot take place side by side. The military has been asked to retaliate in self-defence, which is their right,” Nisar had said, adding that proceeding with dialogue amid attacks across the country would be ‘injustice to terror victims’. The interior minister’s statement came hours after the military bombed suspected insurgent hideouts in North Waziristan and Khyber agencies, killing at least 30 suspected militants. Days earlier, the TTP Mohmand Chapter claimed it had executed 23 kidnapped Frontier Corps men. At Friday’s news conference, the TTP spokesman accused the government of not being serious about negotiations right from the outset. “The air strikes carried out in the Mirali and Shawal areas of North Waziristan have proved the government was never serious about peace talks,” Shahid said. Replying to a query, he said there were no rifts within the TTP over the peace accord. “We completely abide by the peace accord struck by the TTP Waziristan council… there are no differences among us.” Meanwhile, Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Yousaf on Friday hoped the peace process would be resumed by both sides. Talking to journalists at the Parliament House, he said the government was keen to restore peace through dialogue and urged the Taliban to capitalise on this by announcing a ceasefire. Published in The Express Tribune, February 22nd, 2014.