Pakistan's interior minister said Tuesday that some members of the
Pakistani Taliban have requested peace talks, but the government would
only hold such negotiations if they first surrendered their arms.
The
government's stance raises questions about the prospects for talks,
despite a recent peace push by parliament. Security forces have been
engaged in a bloody war with Pakistan's branch of the militant movement
over the past several years, and it is unlikely the militants would give
up their weapons as a precondition for negotiations in this
environment.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said there would be no negotiations with insurgents who "held a Kalashnikov (rifle) in one hand."
"The
minimum agenda is that they must surrender arms and come forward,"
Malik said in response to questions by reporters during a visit to
Quetta, the capital of southwest Baluchistan province.
Pakistan's
government is under some internal pressure to reach a deal with the
insurgents, who are mostly based along the Afghan border and who have
declared war on the state.
The country held a meeting of all major
political parties at the end of September, in which they agreed that
the government must attempt to start peace talks. "Pakistan must
initiate a dialogue with a view to negotiate peace with our own people
in the tribal areas and a proper mechanism for this to be put in place,"
said a resolution issued after the meeting.
The government has
cut peace deals with the Pakistani Taliban in the past, but none of them
have held. The agreements have been criticized for allowing the
militants to regroup and rebuild their strength to resume fighting
against the government and troops in Afghanistan.
Malik said his
government has received messages from insurgents who want to begin
talks, but he refused to give additional details.
There have been
reports in the local media that various Pakistani Taliban commanders are
interested in peace negotiations, but they could not be confirmed.
It
is not entirely clear where Pakistan's powerful army stands on peace
talks with the Taliban. The army has launched several major offensives
against the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal region over the past few
years, and any talks would need its backing to be successful.
A
senior military official said recently that the army is not engaged in
any peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban and has not approached the
group to enter such negotiations. The official spoke on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The U.S. has
discouraged Pakistan from engaging local Taliban in peace talks in the
past, but it's unclear whether that stance has changed given
Washington's push for negotiation with the Afghan Taliban.
The
U.S. has urged Pakistan to use its alleged connections with the Afghan
Taliban and their allies to push them to the negotiating table, but have
had little success. Analysts say one of the reasons is that Islamabad
wants to play a prominent role in the negotiations, but Kabul and
Washington are wary of its motives. AP
