PESHAWAR: The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) leader, Mufti Noor Wali Mehsood, has indicated that his outfit is still amenable to a ceasefire agreement with the government.

“We held talks with Pakistan mediated by Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan. We are still open to the ceasefire agreement,” Mehsood said in a message on Saturday.

The statement indicated that the TTP sought guidance from religious scholars, saying: “If you find anything mislaid, any negligence or if you believe we have changed our course — you, being our teachers and religious scholars, [should] guide us the same way as you guided us earlier. We are ready to listen to your opinion.”

On January 4, TTP’s supreme council issued a fresh directive on ‘meeting’ the TTP chief when it banned any meeting with the chief stating ‘security’ concerns until further orders where at the same time directions were issued for its affiliates to carry on with their activities under command of the local leadership.

On November 28, 2022, the banned outfit, in a statement, called off the ceasefire agreed with the government in June 2022 and ordered its militants to stage attacks across the country.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2023