Pakistan in Talks With Taliban Militants, Whilst Assaults Ramp Up

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan is holding talks with factions of the Pakistani Taliban, a banned militant group liable for among the nation’s worst terrorist assaults, and would forgive members who lay down their weapons, Prime Minister Imran Khan stated on Friday.

Though particulars of the talks had been unclear, negotiations with the group often known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or T.T.P., could be essentially the most vital improvement since comparable efforts failed in 2014 and Pakistan turned to an enormous navy operation to decrease the group.

“There are completely different teams which type the Pakistani Taliban, or T.T.P.,” Mr. Khan stated in an interview with the Turkish state tv station TRT World. “We’re in talks with a few of them on a reconciliation course of. We would not attain some kind of conclusion or settlement ultimately, however we’re speaking.”

In an announcement quickly after Mr. Khan’s interview, the T.T.P. known as on its fighters to proceed their assaults. It denied divisions in its ranks and made no acknowledgment of the continuing talks. It additionally claimed duty for a lethal assault on a Pakistani navy convoy on Friday, the most recent in a spate of such assaults.

Mr. Khan stated the talks had been held in neighboring Afghanistan, the place the Afghan Taliban are in energy after ousting the nation’s American-backed authorities in August.

The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are separate entities, though their ideologies overlap, as does their coaching, in non secular seminaries in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Whereas Pakistan’s navy has been combating the Pakistani Taliban, it has lengthy been accused of nurturing the Afghan Taliban.

The Afghan Taliban’s takeover subsequent door has supplied Pakistan with an ally, and Pakistani officers have urged that the group’s authorities in Kabul be recognized internationally.

Spokesmen for the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Mr. Khan’s revelation of talks in Afghanistan.

An Afghan Taliban commander conscious of the talks, who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of he was not approved to debate particulars, stated his group had proposed the negotiations to either side and had supplied its help in serving to finish the two-decade battle in Pakistan.

Pakistani officers remained tight-lipped concerning the particulars, however two senior safety officers who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate delicate talks advised that the Afghan Taliban had been performing as intermediaries.

Till final yr, the Pakistani Taliban appeared significantly weakened, their prime management killed or pushed into Afghanistan after the 2014 talks collapsed. Pakistan’s ensuing navy operation, whereas diminishing the group, additionally took a heavy toll on civilians.

And the Pakistani Taliban maintained the power to hold out ambushes, which have intensified in latest weeks.

Even when talks get underway in earnest, the positions of the 2 sides seem tough to reconcile.

One of many senior Pakistani safety officers stated talks would solely occur “throughout the confines of Pakistan’s legislation and Structure,” and that there could be “no acceptability” for the militants if they didn’t settle for these phrases and lay down arms.

The militant group doesn’t settle for the Pakistani Structure and has lengthy demanded that Islamic legislation, or Shariah, be put in impact. It reiterated that place final month when it rebuffed a suggestion of amnesty from senior Pakistani officers.

“The T.T.P. has two important situations for negotiations: Shariah’s implementation and the discharge of T.T.P. prisoners,” stated Abdul Sayed, a safety specialist and researcher on militant teams in Afghanistan and Pakistan, who is predicated in Sweden.

“It appears fairly tough that with such hard-line calls for, its negotiations with the state can proceed. With out these situations, T.T.P. says that significant dialogue can’t happen,” Mr. Sayed stated.

Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud contributed reporting from Islamabad and Mujib Mashal from New Delhi.