ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government and a local Taliban network whose leadership is based in Afghanistan have agreed to indefinitely extend a cease-fire as they continue negotiations to end nearly a decade and a half of conflict, Pakistani media reported on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is a separate movement from the Afghan Taliban, announced the cease-fire until May 30.
The group masterminded some of the most high-profile militant attacks in Pakistan’s history, including a massacre of over 130 school children in Peshawar, attempt to kill Malala Yousafzai who later won the Nobel Prize for promoting girls’ education, and an attack on the army’s headquarters in Rawalpindi.
“The extension in cease-fire, which was to come to an end last night, indicates significant progress in talks between the two sides in the Afghan capital Kabul,” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported.
Quoting unnamed sources, it added that the two sides agreed to prolong the cease-fire following separate meetings with Afghanistan’s Acting Prime Minister Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund at his office in recent days.
“These sources said that in his meetings with the two sides, the soft-spoken septuagenarian [Afghan] leader expressed his desire that the talks and cease-fire should be allowed to continue without any cut-off date,” the report continued.
So far, no official statement has been made regarding the indefinite extension in cease-fire, though the newspaper said Afghanistan’s acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani had been instrumental in mediating the talks.
“Compensation for the dead and wounded, enforcement of Shariah regulation in Malakand, withdrawal of military from the [northwestern] borders and reversal of Fata [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] merger into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were key demands from the TTP side,” Dawn reported.
It informed the government was not prepared to reverse the merger of Pakistan’s tribal territories with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Besides, it did not want to disband the TTP as an armed militant group.
“The government delegation has made it plain that no armed group would be allowed to enter Pakistan territory or operate as such,” the newspaper said. “Options are being discussed and the [administration in Kabul] is fully on-board in this regard.”
