Pakistan and local Taliban insurgents have agreed to a “complete truce” following talks sponsored by the Taliban administration in neighboring Afghanistan, according to Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.
The Pakistani Taliban seek to overthrow the government and impose their own brutal Islamic law to rule the country of 220 million people in South Asia.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, is a militant group separate from the Afghan Taliban.
“The ceasefire will keep on extending with the progress in the negotiations,” Chaudhry said in a statement. “The government of Pakistan and banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have agreed on a complete ceasefire.”
He stated that the talks would be conducted in accordance with Pakistani law and constitution. The TTP has not yet responded to the news.
The TTP is an umbrella organization of al Qaeda-linked Sunni militant groups that have waged a war against the state for the past two decades, killing tens of thousands of Pakistanis.
The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, where they ruled with an iron fist from 1996 to 2001, has emboldened Islamist militants in the region, particularly those who have long controlled tribal districts along the Afghan-Pakistan border, which were once the headquarters of local and international Islamists.
TTP is now looking for concessions. According to insiders, it has provided the government with a list of imprisoned leaders who it wants released in order to facilitate future negotiations.
