ISLAMABAD , NOV 08 : The government and the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have reached a complete ceasefire, Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry revealed Monday.
According to the media talks between the two groups are underway as per the Constitution. “They will focus on state sovereignty, national security, peace, social and economic stability in the areas concerned,” Chaudhry said.
The negotiations were facilitated by the interim Afghan government, he added.
Last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an interview with TRT World, said that the government is in talks with some groups of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan for reconciliation.
“I do not believe in military solutions,” the PM stressed. “I’m anti-military solutions. So I always believe, as a politician, political dialogue is the way ahead which I always believe was the case in Afghanistan.”
Referring to TTP attacks on the country’s armed forces, he said that they were just a “spate of attacks”.
We might not reach a conclusion in the end, but for now, we are in talks, the prime minister revealed. Answering a question on whether the Afghan Taliban were aiding the reconciliation process, he pointed: “Since the negotiations were taking place in Afghanistan, in that sense, yes.”
Earlier, the South China Morning Post claimed that the Afghan Taliban in Kabul is trying to initiate talks between Pakistan and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan after Islamabad offered conditional amnesty for surrendering militants.
Similarly, President Arif Alvi told Dawn News TV on September 11 that a general amnesty could be offered to the TTP. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi reiterated this in an interview on September 15 too.
He said the government will be open to giving a pardon to TTP members if they promise not to indulge in terrorist activities and abide by the Pakistan law.
The TTP had fled to Afghanistan in 2014-15 in an attempt to evade military operations in the merged districts of Pakistan.
