Peshawar: The chief of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has said that his group is “still open” to a ceasefire agreement with the Pakistan government, according to media reports.
In November last year, the TTP called off an indefinite ceasefire agreed with the government in June 2022 and ordered its militants to carry out attacks on the security forces. The TTP, which is believed to have close links to al-Qaeda, has threatened to target top leaders of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s PML-N and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s PPP if the ruling coalition continued to implement strict measures against the militants.
However, the dreaded outfit insisted that it has not scrapped the ceasefire agreement with the government.
“We held talks with Pakistan mediated by Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan. We are still open to the ceasefire agreement,” the Dawn newspaper quoted TTP chief Mufti Noor Wali Mehsood as saying in a video on Saturday.
Mehsood’s change in stance comes amid reports that he has sought guidance from religious scholars in Pakistan.
In the video message, Mehsood said his outfit is “open to guidance” from Pakistan’s religious scholars if they believe “the direction of our jihad” is wrong, according to the Express Tribune newspaper.
“If you find any problem in the jihad that we waged [against this global infidel agenda], if you believe we have changed our direction, that we have gone astray, then you’re requested to guide us. We’re always ready to listen to your arguments happily,” the TTP chief said. Mehsood’s comments come amid a sharp uptick in violence across Pakistan.
On Saturday, Pakistan police arrested five TTP terrorists during intelligence-based operations in the country’s Punjab
province.
Over 5,000 tribesmen took out a rally on Friday in Wana, against the growing unrest, terrorism, and kidnappings in their
areas.