PESHAWAR:
For the first time in 10 years, direct peace talks were held between the
government and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Orakzai Agency on
Wednesday.
The talks were mainly focused on an
extension in the ceasefire and release of non-combatant detainees.The
face-to-face meeting lasting seven hours was held in the Bilandkhel area
in Spin Thall in the Orakzai tribal region near the boundary with North
Waziristan and the Kurram tribal regions. Sources said a consensus
could not be developed during the talks on the host of issues that were
discussed.
The venue of the talks was kept secret and the
media kept speculating the whole day that the talks were being held in
North Waziristan. However, The News had correctly predicted a day ahead
that the talks would be held in Spin Thall, Bilandkhel in Orakzai
Agency.
Five TTP central Shura members took part in the
talks, although the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-S) head Maulana Samiul
Haq, who is head of the TTP-nominated negotiations committee, said eight
Shura members were present. The elderly Maulana Samiul Haq also
attended the meeting.
The four government negotiators led
by Secretary Ports and Shipping Habibullah Khan Khattak and the three
TTP negotiations committee members headed by Maulana Samiul Haq were
first flown in two separate helicopters to Thall town in Hangu district
and then driven in vehicles to Bilandkhel in Orakzai Agency. The three
other government negotiators were Fawad Hasan Fawad, an Additional
Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, Additional Chief Secretary
Fata Arbab Muhammad Arif and Rustam Shah Mohmand, a retired bureaucrat
who served as chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and ambassador to
Afghanistan and is a nominee of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in
the committee.
The TTP-nominated negotiators Professor
Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, who is provincial head of the Jamaat-e-Islami,
and Maulana Yousaf Shah, who is an aide to Maulana Samiul Haq and is
coordinator of the committee, also attended the talks.
The
TTP Shura was represented in the talks by Qari Shakil, who belongs to
Mohmand Agency, Azam Tariq, who is from the Mehsud tribe in South
Waziristan, Qari Bashir, Dr Hussain, who is a pharmacist and cleric, and
a fifth person whose name could not be ascertained. Maulana Yousaf Shah
and Prof Ibrahim had earlier said that Maulana Zakir too would be
representing the TTP Shura, but it wasn’t clear if he attended the
meeting on Wednesday.
According to sources, the meeting
took place at the house of Mohammad Jamil, a retired subedar of the
Levies. The Bilandkhel area is inhabited by the Bangash tribe.After
welcoming the government negotiators, the TTP Shura members asked them
whether they had been fully empowered and had the authority to make
decisions.
“At this stage, the members of the government
committee phoned Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and informed
him about the question posed by the Taliban. After speaking to the
minister, the committee members came back and told the TTP Shura members
that they had the power to make decisions,” said an insider of the
meeting.
Pleading anonymity, he said formal talks then
started between the two sides and the first session continued till noon.
He said the talks were suspended for lunch and prayers and then
continued till the evening. “Both sides carefully listened to each other
for seven hours,” the source said.
Senior members of the Taliban alleged that the government had failed in showing sincerity in talks.
“After
announcing a ceasefire on March 1, we made three demands from the
government and the government agreed with us. We demanded a separate
peace zone in the tribal areas where we could live and easily move.
Second, we asked for the immediate release of our non-combatant
prisoners, including women, children and elderly people. They are not
militants but were taken into custody for being relatives of the
militants. The third demand was for an end to the extra-judicial killing
of TTP prisoners in jails,” a senior member of the Taliban told The
News on condition of anonymity.
He said they were happy
that there has been a considerable decline in the extra-judicial killing
of their jailed members, but the government didn’t fulfil its
commitment regarding the designation of a peace zone and release of
non-combatant prisoners.
“We admit that the
extra-judicial killing of our people has stopped but they are being
tortured since the start of the peace talks,” the Taliban commander
alleged, adding that even then they decided to continue the peace
process.
He said they had already delivered a list of 300
of their non-combatant prisoners to the Taliban negotiations committee,
which handed it over to the government. He added that most of the
civilian prisoners belong to Swat and other places in Malakand Division.
“Some
of our people actually didn’t want to stop fighting against the
government. We persuaded them and asked them to give us names of their
prisoners. It made them happy and they stopped fighting. But now when
they realise that the government was not going to free their people,
they will not care about the ceasefire,” the TTP commander noted.
Another
TTP commander in North Waziristan also said there was no breakthrough
in the first round of talks with the government committee because the
government did not take steps that could make the negotiations fruitful.
“We
sincerely started this peace process despite the opposition of some of
our people, but now only the government can make it productive,” he
said.Wishing not to be named, he said they have decided to extend the
ceasefire till the talks continued.
Meanwhile, the members
of the Taliban negotiations committee led by Maulana Samiul Haq
returned to Peshawar on Wednesday evening after the end of the direct
talks and spoke to the media.
Talking to reporters,
Maulana Samiul Haq termed the first direct meeting between the two sides
as a great success and said they would continue their efforts till the
logical conclusion of the talks.
“The ice has melted. Both
sides sat together. They attentively listened to each other and gave
positive signal for the success of the talks,” he said. He added that
the two sides would meet again after two days.
Prof
Ibrahim said after succeeding in making the ceasefire on March 1 they
had now been successful in bringing the two sides to the negotiation
table. “This is no doubt a great success and the nation would soon hear
good news,” he remarked.
He said that the war and
lawlessness that continued for more than 10 years have made the life of
the people miserable. He expressed optimism that peace would be restored
soon and the efforts that both the sides have been making would bear
fruit. He urged the people to pray for the success of the talks and
restoration of peace in the country.
Online adds: At the
conclusion of the first direct talks between the Taliban and the
official committee, it has been decided that the ceasefire would be
extended and prisoners be released besides ensuring continued
negotiations between the warring groups.
In a statement,
the Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid announced that a request was
also submitted by the Taliban to restrict the army troops’ movement in
order to facilitate the Taliban’s routine activities. The government has
so far not responded to this request.
After the
conclusion of the dialogue, the Taliban committee proceeded to an
unknown destination, while the official committee would be submitting
its report to Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan after which further rounds of
dialogue would be planned.Sources said the issue of the newly surfaced
Taliban faction named Ahrarul Hind also cropped up during the meeting.
The Taliban assured they would investigate the issue.
