A NUMBER of private news TV channels quoted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain as saying in reaction to the video that the government had not asked the Taliban to surrender their arms.

Instead, he said, it wanted the Taliban to renounce violence before any talks could be held with them.

“The Taliban should forget whatever has happened to them and we are ready to forget whatever has happened to us,” said Mr Hussain, whose son was killed in a bomb blast blamed on the militants.