The government and Taliban negotiation committee on Monday decided to take some practical steps to speed up the dialogue process between the government and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Maulana Samiul Haq, the chief of his own faction of JUI and a member of Taliban committee, told media persons after the meeting with the government committee that the meeting had decided that both sides needed to take practical steps to further accelerate the process of negotiations.
He said that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had sought two to three days for a government response over various issues. "After getting a government response both the committees will hold a meeting to decide about the venue of talks between the government team and TTP shura members; and direct talks will be held in a few days," he said. To a question about ceasefire, he said that "ceasefire will hold".
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan presided over the meeting. Maulan Samiul Haq, Professor Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, Maulana Yousaf Shah of Taliban committee along with Habibullah Khan and Fawad Hassan, additional chief secretary Fata Arbab Mohammad Arif, former ambassador to Afghanistan Rustam Shah Mohmand also attended the meeting.
Sources said the meeting discussed in detail the outcome of the first direct talks held between Taliban shura members and the government negotiators. The meeting also discussed TTP demands, including the release of about 300 'non-combatants', and relaxation in the movement of its members as well as a perceptible or discernable decrease in military presence in the tribal areas to establish a 'peace zone', sources said.
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