MIRAMSHAH: The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has said it is ready for a ceasefire if the government stops alleged “custodial and extra-judicial killings and arrest of our workers”.

TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid stated this while talking to this correspondent on phone on Wednesday.

The conditions for a ceasefire came three days after the TTP in Mohmand Agency, headed by Umar Khalid Khurassani, claimed to have killed 23 soldiers of the Frontier Corps who had been in Taliban’s captivity since 2010. They were captured during an attack on a post near the Afghan border.

“Taliban are prepared for a ceasefire if the government committee gives a firm assurance to our interlocutors that our workers in custody will neither be killed nor arrested,” Shahid said.

Our Peshawar Bureau adds: Prof Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, a member of the Taliban negotiations committee, said the government’s demand for unconditional ceasefire was not correct and both sides would have to declare a truce. In a statement issued by the Jamaat-i-Islami’s headquarters in Peshawar, he claimed that there were chances of a major breakthrough but the Mohmand Agency incident created a deadlock.