ISLAMABAD - The government intermediators on Tuesday advised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to initiate the process for framing strategy to hold direct talks with the Taliban militants.
They advised the prime minister to chalk out the strategy for direct negotiations and presented their recommendations for possible steps in future.
Expressing serious concern over the continuing acts of terrorism despite announcement of truce by TTP, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his government’s resolve to establish durable peace at all costs.
He expressed these views while talking to the four-member government committee for holding negotiations with Taliban here at the Prime Minister’s House on Tuesday.
The committee members gave their input on the negotiations with Tehreek-e-Taliban’s nominated team in the light of the recent acts of terrorism in the federal capital and Khyber Agency and the unilateral truce announced by the militants.
In a brief chat with media people after the meeting with the PM, coordinator of the government committee, Irfan Siddiqui, said next session with the TTP-backed committee would be held in a couple of days.
Sources in the government committee said the prime minister was worried about the terrorist attack despite announcement of unilateral truce by the militants and feared that these could derail the dialogue process.
The meeting which was also attended by the interior minister was of the view that the government committee would seek explanation from the TTP-nominated team on these terrorist attacks and also ask them to denounce these acts of terrorism as mere dissociation from these attacks was not sufficient.
Sources in the government said the government would also seek support of TTP in tracking down the miscreants who ostensibly dissociated themselves from the militants’ conglomeration.
Ahead of its meeting with the prime minister, the four-member committee met to review the situation in the backdrop of the unilateral truce by TTP and the recent terror attacks in the federal capital and Khyber Agency.
The committee members termed the continuing acts of terrorism detrimental to the peace efforts, which could hamper the ongoing peace dialogue with TTP.
The committee members decided that they would take up the matter with the TTP-backed committee and would not only seek explanation from them but also ask them to help the government in crushing those torpedoing the peace dialogue.
The committee members also prepared a set of proposals which they had presented to the prime minister to make the peace dialogue with TTP a success.
Talking to BBC, government committee member Rahimullah Yusufzai said the government’s direct talks with Taliban will be more beneficial and the negotiating team should have members from political and military leadership.
Earlier, another member of government’s team Maj (r) Amer had said that after announcement of the ceasefire by TTP, the government should go for direct parleys with the Taliban.
Rahimullah said he had a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in which recent terror attacks and Taliban’s distancing themselves from these incidents came under discussion.
He further said the talks with Taliban would go on. He said some decisions were taken in Tuesday’s meeting which would be announced later.
“These terror incidents will harm dialogue process and should be stopped forthwith,” he said.
He further said that both the negotiating parties should make collective efforts to nail such elements. Rahimullah was of the view that both the parties were now ‘partners in peace’. He said if Taliban had some information about the groups which were against the talks, they should be stopped.