ISLAMABAD: The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have demanded the government release a number of prisoners as a condition for talks aimed at laying the ground for full ceasefire negotiations, multiple sources in the group said.
The group, separate from the Afghan Taliban, have had two rounds of preliminary talks, facilitated by Afghanistan’s new rulers, a commander based in the Afghan province of Kunar said.
Sources close to the matter said Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of the Haqqani Network and the current Afghan Taliban interior minister, was helping the talks.
The TTP, which combines a number of militant groups that have been fighting the state of Pakistan since 2007, is included on the U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organisations.
Last month Prime Minister Imran Khan told Turkey’s TRT television that his government was in talks with parts of the TTP as part of a “reconciliation process”.
The release of the prisoners is meant to be a confidence-building measure, three TTP commanders said, adding that the outcome of the talks was still uncertain.
“We aren’t too hopeful of the immediate results of the talks but our leaders had demanded the release of prisoners if they are sincere in meaningful negotiations,” a TTP commander told Reuters from Afghanistan’s Kunar province.
No comment was available from the government. The Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
According to negotiators, the two sides agreed not to issue statements either supporting or opposing the peace process or against each other till the accord is signed and made public.
TTP spokesman Muhammad Khurasani said in a text message the group had “never refused meaningful talks” but that there were no developments on the ground yet.
TTP attacks have killed and wounded thousands of civilians and service personnel over the years but the group was badly weakened by the Zarb-i-Azb operation in 2014 which drove it from its stronghold in North Waziristan.
However, it has a force estimated at around 4,000-5,000 fighters, many based across the border in Afghanistan, and there has been a spate of incidents along the border since the Taliban seized Kabul in August.
Under the previous Western-backed government in Kabul, both Afghanistan and Pakistan accused each other of harbouring militant groups that mounted cross-border attacks.
Another TTP commander said the group’s leadership had consulted all factions in the movement, some of which had serious reservations about talking to the government, but he said many ordinary fighters wanted to go home.
