Taliban rejects declaration adopted by political parties
Islamabad: Taliban have rejected a declaration adopted by leading political parties of Pakistan that called for negotiations to end terrorism, saying it was drawn up with an eye on the upcoming general election.
Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan told the media: “We are still waiting for serious and meaningful talks with the government and the army.”
“Frankly speaking, the (conference) didn’t impress us as participants have failed to give any roadmap for peace talks with us,” Ihsan said.
Over the past few weeks, Taliban leaders have offered peace talks to the government but said they will not disarm.
Ihsan has also said that attacks by the militants will continue till a peace deal is finalised. Ihsan said the Taliban had offered peace talks in the “larger interest of Islam and Pakistan” but warned that the initiative should not be perceived as a sign of its weakness.
He criticised the Awami National Party for organising the conference on terrorism on Valentine’s Day.
“Organising the conference on Valentine’s Day reflects the imperialist thinking of the ANP,” he claimed.
Ihsan further claimed the ANP’s leadership organised the conference on Valentine’s Day to “win the sympathies of the West, particularly the United States”.
The Taliban’s Shura (council) had met on the directives of its chief Hakimullah Mehsud and discussed the declaration adopted at the conference of political parties.
“The Shura found nothing new in it. It was an old story,” he said. The meeting of the Shura was attended by senior Taliban commanders from Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas and they discussed several issues, including peace talks with the government, he said.
When the Taliban recently announced it was ready for talks with the government, it proposed that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Munawar Hasan should act as guarantors as the militants did not have confidence in the army.
