Attacks on troops will continue: TTP

The News Wednesday, September 18, 2013 From Print Edition PESHAWAR: The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Tuesday insisted the Taliban are still at war with the Pakistan Army troops because peace talks have yet to start and the military is still launching multiple offensives against them. The announcement came two days after two senior military officers were killed by a Taliban bomb in Upper Dir.“War is continuing, it was started by the government and they will have to stop it,” Shahidullah Shahid, main spokesman for the TTP, told AFP from an undisclosed location. Analysts said the attack endangered the proposed peace talks with the insurgents.Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday said the militants would not be allowed to take advantage of the peace talks offer.But the Taliban said that they would carry out more attacks because peace talks had yet to be officially proposed. “No one has contacted us for peace talks, not even a tribal Jirga has approached us. If they (government) want to end this war, they will have to announce a ceasefire,” Shahid said.The Taliban on Sunday announced pre-conditions for talks on ending the insurgency that has killed thousands of people, demanding that troops withdraw from tribal areas and that prisoners be freed. When the TTP spokesman was asked about his group’s future plans after the attack which killed the officers, he said: “We will never miss any opportunity to attack the army like that.”