ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government has been holding talks with the Pakistani Taliban, or the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), but the two sides have not reached any conclusion so far, Pakistan’s interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Sunday.
The TTP, which is a separate movement from the Afghan Taliban, has fought for years to overthrow the government in Islamabad and rule with its own brand of Islamic law. In December, the group declared an end to a month-long cease-fire, accusing the government of breaching terms, including a prisoner release agreement and the formation of negotiating committees.
Last month, the head of the Pakistani military’s media wing said armed operations against the outlawed group had been relaunched.
“We are in contact with the [Pakistani] Taliban, perhaps tomorrow also the delegation that is going [to meet] the Taliban, our additional secretary of the ministry of interior among two people are going,” Ahmed said at a press conference in Islamabad.
“Talks are ongoing but no conclusion has been reached,” minister said, without disclosing where these talks were going to take place.
Best known in the West for attempting to kill Malala Yousafzai, the schoolgirl who went on to win the Nobel Prize for her work promoting girls’ education, the TTP has killed thousands of Pakistani military personnel and civilians in bombings and suicide attacks over the years.
Among its attacks was a 2014 assault on a military-run school in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which killed 149 people, including 132 children. The United Nations has designated the TTP as a terrorist organization.
The TTP has recently increased it attacks across the South Asian country.
Government in talks with Pakistani Taliban but no conclusion reached so far — interior minister



