TTP Shura welcomes new govt committee: Prof Ibrahim

Says TTP committee optimistic about peace talks as negotiations were taking place for first time at national level.

NOWSHERA:

Key policymakers of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) endorsed the freshly constituted government peace committee on Friday, describing its members as experienced hands who were well acquainted with the culture of the tribal belt, said the group’s intermediary Professor Muhammad Ibrahim.

Prof Ibrahim was speaking at a news conference in Akora Khattak on Friday after returning from North Waziristan, where he and two other colleagues Maulana Yousaf Shah and Maulana Abdul Hai met members of the political council of the TTP.

He said the Taliban committee is optimistic about the success of the peace initiative as negotiations were taking place for the first time at the national level. Previous truces between the government and the TTP failed because they were held at a regional level, without taking all stakeholders on board.

Before him, Maulana Samiul Haq told reporters that the government and the Taliban should consider the negotiations as a golden opportunity for the restoration of peace in the country.

He said the TTP Political Shura told the intermediaries that they wanted the government committee to arrange a meeting immediately and take the process forward. He also said the council wants the Taliban-nominated committee to be part of this decisive phase. He urged the government to take quick decisions to sit face-to-face with the Taliban.

He also said that the Taliban intermediaries were expected to meet the new government committee in the next two days.

According to an official privy to developments, Taliban intermediaries will convey to the government peace committee that the TTP wants to decide the venue of the direct meeting and they refuse to hold talks in an official government building.

He told The Express Tribune that this location will be undisclosed, and the TTP representative will take the committee to this spot themselves in their own vehicles. “They have taken an oath on religious and cultural grounds that nothing will happen to the committee members.”

If the meeting takes place in South Waziristan, it will be at either Laddah Fort or Makeen.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2014.