KOHAT: The proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said on Sunday that the reservations of the army could be removed by the government only.
The Taliban negotiation team members said that the list of freed prisoners had not been handed over to them by the government. Dismissing reports about any rift in its ranks, the TTP said that some elements in the media were busy playing up petty differences among its members.
Talking to The News on phone from an undisclosed location, TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said that the extension in ceasefire would be decided by the Taliban Shura. “We want to make it clear that the entire TTP has nothing to do with the ongoing clashes taking place in Waziristan between two groups. The bitterness was caused as a result of some misunderstanding among our colleagues in that particular area,” he said.
He insisted that the central Shura of the TTP had resolved the differences. He claimed that the skirmishes between the two factions were not linked to the ongoing peace talks with the government or the issue of extension in the ceasefire.
Shahidullah Shahid asserted that all factions of the TTP stood by the decisions of the central Shura that acted on the orders from their chief Maulana Fazlullah.
“The TTP dismisses the reports about differences in its ranks as mere propaganda,” he said. “We know the elements who are involved in such practices so we want to tell them that indulging in such things is against the journalistic values,” he added.
Agencies add: President JI, KP chapter, Professor Ibrahim Khan has assured about the resumption of dialogue with the Taliban soon.
Addressing the inauguration of two-day workshop for his party activists in Swabi on Sunday, Ibrahim, who is a member of the Taliban dialogue committee, said that there was no other way to come out of the crisis except this dialogue and expressed his strong resolve to pursue the course even if the current efforts failed.
He expressed concern over the abduction of 17 persons from Haider Kandao, Orakzai, and said that many of the abducted persons had been released. He backed the Taliban’s demand for the implementation of Shariah in the country.
The Taliban liaison committee member, Maulana Yousaf Shah, said that the Taliban-government talks after a deadlock would begin again from Monday.In an interview with a private TV channel, Maulana Yousaf Shah said that there was no split in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as all the groups were operating under one umbrella and supported the TTP talks with the government.
Maulana Yousaf said that talks with the government would again begin from Monday. In the first phase, steps would be taken for an indefinite ceasefire, he said.He further said that the government and the Taliban had been advised to put the issues in the formal agenda of the meeting in a bid to resolve them.
Maulana Yousaf said that the government had not formally demanded the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to release Ali Gilani and Shahbaz Taseer.Meanwhile, the government negotiation committee member, Rustam Shah Mohmand, said that the process of peace talks with the Taliban would restart soon.
Talking to the media in Peshawar, Mohmand said, “We shall clearly tell the situation in a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.”He told media men that the future strategy would be decided now as the PM had returned from abroad. He also stated that the meeting would discuss the Taliban prisoners.“In the next few days, the timings and venue of the peace talks between the two sides will be decided,” he added.
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