DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Taliban militants declared a ceasefire on Wednesday in fighting with the security forces, and the government said it was preparing for peace talks with al-Qaeda-linked extremists in the lawless tribal area near the border with Afghanistan.
The developments are likely to be greeted with scepticism by the United States and Pakistan’s other Western allies, who believe Islamic militants exploited a failed truce last year to expand their reach into this turbulent, nuclear-armed country.
Maulvi Mohammed Umar, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, said the truce would include not only the tribal belt along the Afghan border but also the restive Swat region to the east.
“The declaration of war we made against security forces was on orders of Baitullah Mehsud,” Umar told The Associated Press by telephone. “We now withdraw that for an indefinite period. We announce the ceasefire as a result of our talks with the government.”
Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, spokesman for the Pakistani army, denied knowledge of any talks but said militants in South Waziristan had stopped shooting at security forces for the past two days and had withdrawn somewhat from positions in the area. But Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said the government would soon form a Jirga, or tribal council of influential figures, “for a dialogue with the militants”.
He claimed security forces had “broken the back” of Mehsud’s fighters.Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said the war simply pitted Pakistanis against one another. “Pakistan’s army was not created to fight against Pakistanis. Neither was it created to die at the hands of Pakistanis,” Sharif said on Wednesday in Lahore.
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