Islamabad/Peshawar: The first-ever direct talks between the Pakistan government and the Pakistani Taliban began on Wednesday at an undisclosed location in the tribal region of North Waziristan to chalk out a solution to the deadly cycle of violence that has claimed over 40,000 lives.
The government’s committee of negotiators first flew to Peshawar whereas representatives of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan boarded a helicopter of the interior ministry. Interior ministry sources said the committee members called up Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan after reaching the venue of the talks.
The sources confirmed that the meeting has started. The much-anticipated direct talks would be attended by all four members of the government’s reconfigured negotiating committee, Taliban intermediaries and members of the ‘Shura’.
The government’s new committee consists of former ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand, Additional Chief Secretary, FATA, Arbab Arif, Secretary Ports and Shipping, Habibullah Khattak and Additional Secretary to Prime Minister, Fawad Hasan Fawad.
The Taliban’s intermediaries are Maulana Samiul Haq who is the head of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema Islam (Sami group), Jamaat-e-Islami’s Ibrahim Khan, and JUI-S spokesperson Maulana Yousaf Shah.
The meeting was scheduled to take place yesterday but was postponed due to bad weather. The government-nominated dialogue committee would ask the Taliban to release the abducted sons of former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and slain Punjab Governor Salman Taseer along with Ajmal Khan, Vice Chancellor of Islamia College University.
The committee would also seek extension of the month-long ceasefire announced by the Taliban. On March 24, the government had finalised its strategy at a meeting attended by its negotiators, and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam. The talks struck an impasse last month after a faction of the banned militant group killed 23 kidnapped Pakistani paramilitary soldiers, resulting in multiple targeted airstrikes by the military against militant hideouts in the tribal region of the northwest.
The Taliban then announced a month-long ceasefire which was reciprocated by the government. The government is optimistic that the Taliban would extend the ceasefire. (PTI)
