Resolution? Ready for cease fire if govt stops targeting cadre, says Pak Taliban

In a significant climb down, the Pakistani Taliban on Wednesday said it is ready for a cease fire and peace talks if the government stops arresting its fighters and killing them in fake police encounters.

‘Our fighters are being targeted, arrested and killed in fake police encounters. The government’s negotiations team should ensure to our committee that this would immediately stop,’ Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told the media here.

‘The government has killed more than 60 Taliban since the start of the peace talks, in Karachi and the rest of Pakistan, under a secret operation codenamed Operation Root Out,’ he alleged.

Shahid said that a ceasefire may be reached if the government ensures that the TTP’s demands are met.

The Taliban had earlier demanded release of non-combatants and pullout of troops from South Waziristan as a condition for a cease fire. The change in demands came days after the banned group killed 23 security personnel in their custody.

‘The killings of soldiers in Mohmand were in response to the onslaught on Taliban members by security forces during the talks between government and Taliban committees,’ Shahid said.

Peace talks to end years of violence by the militant group reached a deadlock earlier this week after the killing of the soldiers who had been kidnapped in 2010 and were killed in captivity to avenge what the TTP called the custodial killing of their ‘fighters’ in various parts of Pakistan. Pakistani security authorities have denied any such killings were carried out.