Taliban leadership divided on extending ceasefire

Agencies Zahir Shah Sherazi Published April 3, 2014

PESHAWAR: Due to prevailing difference of opinion among their ranks, the Pakistani Taliban have not extended a month-long ceasefire but are still open to pursuing peace talks with the government, a spokesman for the insurgent movement said Wednesday.

Central spokesman for Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Shahidullah Shahid said some Taliban leaders had objected to extending the ceasefire, which lasted during the month of March.

“No decision has been made regarding extension in ceasefire,” he said, adding that a meeting of the central Shura (council) would soon be held on the matter.

Shahidullah accused the government of arresting more than 120 TTP militants and not accepting any of their demands during the month-long ceasefire.

The TTP and the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are now involved in their second round of peace talks. A first round failed in February after the Taliban bombed a police bus and executed 23 men kidnapped from a government paramilitary force.

The government then refused to hold further talks until the Taliban announced a ceasefire on March 1.

Government negotiators were not available Wednesday to comment on whether talks would continue.

Taliban negotiators have demanded the government release 800 prisoners they describe as innocent family members and withdraw the army from part of the semi-autonomous tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

“We gave this list and names of our civilian prisoners as a test case and wanted to see if the government was serious,” one commander said. “But we felt that the government is either powerless or not serious in talks.”

Ibrahim Khan, a Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) leader representing the Taliban in the talks, said they had presented their demands on March 29 but had no answer from the government. He did not know if talks would continue without a ceasefire.

Taliban spokesman Shahid accused the government of continuing to kill Taliban during the ceasefire, especially in Karachi, the country's largest city. Taliban fighters are so prevalent in some neighbourhoods that law enforcement agencies are sometimes reluctant to enter.

Taliban commander Omar Khalid Khurasani, from the northern Mohmand region on the other hand said that attacks would begin again in Pakistan.

“There would be more attacks in which common people suffer as the government isn't sincere in peace talks,” he told Reuters.

Pakistan was not entirely peaceful during the ceasefire. A militant group calling itself Ahrarul Hind launched a rare attack in Islamabad, killing at least 11 in a court including a judge.

The Taliban said they were not responsible for the actions of other militant groups.

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Ganga Din

Apr 03, 2014 01:22am

"Taliban leadership divided on extending ceasefire" Democracy in action?

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just_someone

Apr 03, 2014 01:28am

Shame on the government that they are holding 'peace' talks with barbarians that openly threaten to kill innocent civilians. And shame on any religious scholars who think that the killing of innocent civilians is justified for any reason or for any group of people (whether muslim or not)

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Fowez

Apr 03, 2014 01:29am

This is not an insurgent movement, they are terrorists. Let's label them as they are. These are traitors that have taken arms against their own people. They have slaughtered thousands of Pakistani men, women and children justified by their own intolerant interpretation of Islam. They don't want to live among us, they want us to live by their rules. We have seen how the Taliban rule looks like in Afghanistan, no thanks!

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Usman

Apr 03, 2014 01:32am

These elements should only be dealt with force and rooted out from Pakistan. They have killed our innocent countrymen. We don't want negotiations with them. They are foreign funded elements.

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El Cid

Apr 03, 2014 01:47am

@Usman: *These elements should only be dealt with force and rooted out* Oops ! You forgot to give this valuable advice to the British, Soviets, US-NATO...could have saved them a lot of grief, treasure, lives, and face.

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Amjad

Apr 03, 2014 01:48am

Let's die fighting then die hiding finish these animals off if you want our country to prosper

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Hammad

Apr 03, 2014 02:07am

Taliban are acting the way our government should act. They have clarity in their thought, unlike our leaders like Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif.

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Osama Obaid

Apr 03, 2014 02:15am

Taliban is going to kill innocent people and blame the government. These killers need to be dealt with and finished off once and for all.... "|Omar Khalid Khurasani, from the northern Mohmand region on the other hand said that attacks would begin again in Pakistan. There would be more attacks in which common people suffer as the government isn't sincere in peace talks, he told Reuters.". ..

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abdul

Apr 03, 2014 02:34am

A multi-lateral talk involving Government, opposition, TTP, Army and US international monitors might bring lasting ceasefire

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independentthinker

Apr 03, 2014 02:36am

By not extending ceasefire - are they suggesting they will go back to killing the innocents. Is this something that should be negotiated? Don't the citizens of Pakistan have a right to live in peace and if someone tries to threaten their security, whether they are foreign enemies or domestic, it is the responsibility of the Government and our law enforcement agencies to ensure they do not succeed. This ceasefire is not time limited - it is forever and if someone tries to harm our citizens, they need to be eliminated.

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Syed

Apr 03, 2014 02:38am

Albert Einstein quote: "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything."

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Arun

Apr 03, 2014 04:01am

The Talibab want to impose sharia law which as in Afghanistan will lead to poverty and oppression of women and flight of 50 million Pakistanis to India. Pakistan should declare itself a secular nation and its people go back to the tolerant Hinduism of their ancestors.

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Ahmed

Apr 03, 2014 05:32am

@El Cid: You are merely repeating the big lie that taliban sympathizers have been using to intimidate Pakistanis and glorifying the taliban as some kind of invincible fighters. The fact is that they are a bunch of cowardly bullies of schoolgirls and unarmed people and who were sent running out of Kabul by the US in no time. Before that, Ahmed Shah Massoud was more than a match for them until the Pakistani generals of that time tilted the balance. Fortunately, after 60,000 innocent civilians and soldiers murdered by these animals and with a civilian government in place, people in Pakistan no longer believes these lies that glorify these criminals or (alternatively) paint them as innocent victims.

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Nitin Shah

Apr 03, 2014 07:24am

Can any good come out of any deal made with the devil?

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syed

Apr 03, 2014 07:33am

Whenever there is an article like this I am amazed at the large number of readers who are anti peace talks with the Taliban and want the Army to go after them and finish them off. I guess they are familiar with arms and armaments being either ex or serving armed forces personnel or folks experienced in counter insurgency ops, intelligence gathering or surveillance measures. I would suggest that they should form their own militias and go after the Talibans. There is apparently no restriction in Pakistan in forming militias and by the vocal support that is apparent for anti -Taliban ops such people will become overnight heroes of the country. Because the Armed Forces of Pakistan will not take on the TTP in a full frontal assault, a fight to the finish, either in Karachi or in the north-western areas of Pakistan. And it is not because of a lack of fighting spirit. They know that this is easier said than done and that it could boomerang and the situation worse off. Army-intelligence may be an oxymoron but in matters of conflict and security the citizenry is well advised to leave matters in the hand of the professionals.

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humble

Apr 03, 2014 08:05am

@El Cid: If there was oil in this region, british, Russian and Americans would have stayed and fought they way Greeks and later Persia n's defeated them ( this area was under Persia rule that is why Afghanistan official language is still persian) they never considered losing a single a soldier for this land of rocks and dirt.

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Omer

Apr 03, 2014 08:55am

@El Cid: The British, Soviets, and the US/Nato were outside powers, Pakistan is not. I guess this difference is lost on you! No country can allow presence of armed gangs on its soil, let alone allowing terrorists/murderers to dictate withdrawing army and other LEAs from any part of the country.

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Amir Bangash

Apr 03, 2014 09:36am

There should be no confusion in the minds of every Patriotic Pakistani that these terrorists are the evils of society and after the disintegration of Pakistan. There should be no further delay to get them all and bring them to justice.

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M Rafique

Apr 03, 2014 09:56am

Taliban commander Omar Khalid Khurasani, from the northern Mohmand region said that attacks would begin again in Pakistan. .There would be more attacks in which common people suffer as the government isn't sincere in peace talks,

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sahi

Apr 03, 2014 10:38am

@El Cid: Forget who invited the Americans, Soviets and Nato in our area. These all are due to our rulers in the Past We must learn lesson and do not try to export Jihad. Can not understand what is this jihad killing people all around the World. For God sake We must come to senses.

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Amjad Wyne

Apr 03, 2014 11:16am

"The Taliban said they were not responsible for the actions of other militant groups."...This is exactly the line of logic that the government of Pakistan should adopt too. It should allow the army to go after the Taliban and then say, "it was not responsible for the actions of the Army"

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shaharyar

Apr 03, 2014 12:54pm

Only two things they are doing , is making pakistan fool and planning stradegy how to get over from military operation , which would be the only option left in the hand of government !

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observer

Apr 05, 2014 05:42pm

Time to call it a day.

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observer

Apr 05, 2014 05:43pm

When will the "T" ever retire??.

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pathanoo

Apr 05, 2014 10:05pm

What TTP is saying is that if we don't extend the cease fire agreement, we are free to, and will, kill, murder, torture and terrorize people. What a great bunch.

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