Proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has announced ceasefire to end hostilities in South Waziristan and the Pakistan Army on Friday.
Our leaders have asked all fighters to observe a ceasefire from today to October 20, the TTP statement said, according to Geo News.
The TTP further said that their leaders are engaged in some “secret talks”, without elaborating any further.
The development comes after, Prime Minister Imran Khan, earlier in the day, had asserted that Pakistan was in talks with some factions of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for disarmament as the government seeks stability in the country with the evolving Afghan situation.
“I think some of the Pakistani Taliban groups actually want to talk to our government. You know, for some peace, for some reconciliation,” the Prime Minister had said while talking to TRT World in Islamabad.
When asked whether Pakistan was actually in talks with the banned outfit, PM Imran had clarified that talks were ongoing “with some of them”. “Afghan Taliban are helping, in the sense that the talks are taking place in Afghanistan,” the premier added.
The Prime Minister further said that these talks, for disarmament, if successful, would lead to the government “forgiving” them, and then they become normal citizens. “I do not believe in military solutions. As a politician, political dialogue is the only way forward, which I always believed was the case in Afghanistan with the US,” he added.
The interviewer then asked why the TTP was conducting attacks on Pakistan’s security forces when they were in talks with the government. To this, the premier said it was just a spate of attacks. “We might not reach some sort of conclusion or settlement in the end but we are talking,” he added.
The premier noted he always believed that a non-military solution was the only way forward for Afghanistan — and he has reiterated it time and again on national, international forums.
