Peshawar: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) today dismissed reports in the Pakistani media that it had offered to have talks with the government and asserted that it won’t lay down arms for any dialogue, thus rejecting the condition set by the establishment.
“For the past two or three days, some media channels and some journalists, citing Pakistani military sources, have been reporting that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has offered to negotiate with the State,” the outfit’s spokesman Mohammad Khurasani said in a statement.
“We absolutely deny offering negotiations on our part,” he said.
“Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is an organized Islamic Jihadi group that wants real peace in its beloved homeland and is armed with jewels,” Khurasani said.
“We believe in meaningful negotiations. But it does not mean that we will disarm and change our position or offer negotiations,” the TTP spokesman said.
He was commenting on recent Pakistani media reports which suggested that the Afghan Taliban, the rulers of Afghanistan, have been pressing the Pakistani establishment to have talks with its ideological ally — the TTP.
The reports, citing Pakistani sources, further stated that the Pakistani establishment was seeking any dialogue with the TTP and “the possibility of talks can only be explored if TTP surrenders and lays down arms”.
The Pakistan government and the TTP had earlier entered into a ceasefire agreement in the aftermath of Afghan Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.
However, on November 28 last year, the TTP ended the ceasefire, saying the Pakistani military had continuously violated the agreement by carrying out “non-stop” attacks on its cadres.
While announcing the end of the ceasefire, the TTP had said it would carry out operations against the Pakistani military across the country.
Also read: TTP killed 87 Pakistani soldiers, wounded 119 in 76 attacks in May
In fact, it has been causing a lot of damage to the Pakistani Army and other armed forces in terms of manpower and assets through relentless attacks across the country, putting the establishment under severe strain.
During last month, the Islamist outfit carried out 76 attacks at Pakistani armed forces and their installations at various places, killing at least 87 soldiers and injuring 119.
In the month of April, the TTP killed 70 Pakistani security personnel, including Army soldiers, and injured 82 in 48 attacks across the country.
