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Taliban demands release of prisoners, troops out
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Taliban insurgents have set tough terms for peace talks with Pakistan’s government including the release of all imprisoned fighters and the withdrawal of troops from tribal areas, a militant source said yesterday.
The Taliban outlined its demands to a team of Islamist clerics who are holding talks with the government on the militants’ behalf about ending a seven-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.
Negotiating teams held a first meeting on Thursday, but the dozen conditions now laid down by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan will raise further doubts about the chances of success.
A TTP commander said the prisoner and troops issues were a “test case” for the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to prove its sincerity.
“This is the first round of talks. The committee members will now meet the government committee and will forward our demands,” he said.
The team representing the TTP met the insurgents’ 10-member council in the mountainous tribal district of North Waziristan over the weekend.
The chief negotiator representing the Taliban, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, said the meeting had been “positive,” adding that the next round of talks with government negotiators would take place within two days.
Haq, who sent a delegate in his place, said the TTP meeting had taken place at a secret location about four hours from Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.
“This is a war of years and years and one cannot solve it in minutes, nor can one disclose every detail of the talks. We have a chance to stop the bloodshed,” he said.
Maulana Yousuf Shah, another member of the team, said that “five or six” US drones were in the sky at the time but the Taliban and the negotiation team had avoided them.
Pakistan’s military entered the tribal areas in 2003 after the US invasion in 2001 of Afghanistan. The withdrawal of troops and the release of prisoners are long-standing demands of the TTP.
The Taliban said it wants security in the tribal areas taken out of the hands of the army and given to local security and administrative officials, a move which would strengthen the militants’ control.
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