No Peace Until Pakistan Embraces Islamic Law: Taliban Negotiators

[cherlapalli_jailer]

Negotiators representing Taliban insurgents said Wednesday there was no chance of peace in Pakistan until the government embraces Islamic sharia law and US-led forces withdraw completely from neighbouring Afghanistan. 

 

The tough conditions appear to deal a blow to hopes that talks with the Pakistani government could end the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) insurgency that has rocked the nuclear-armed country since 2007. 

 

Initial peace talks failed to get under way on Tuesday when the government delegation refused to meet the militants' negotiators, citing confusion about the make-up of their team. 

 

The two sides are expected to try to meet again on Thursday or Friday, though no definite arrangements have yet been made. 

 

Washington and Kabul have been deadlocked over a pact known as the Bilateral Security Agreement, which would allow some US troops to stay on in Afghanistan beyond 2014. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is refusing to sign it at present. 

 

Its supporters say the pact is crucial to Afghanistan's stability after the bulk of NATO forces pull out. 

 

But Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, the head of the TTP's three-man talks team, told AFP there could be "no peace" in the region while there were still US troops across the border. 

 

His comments were echoed by his fellow TTP negotiator Maulana Abdul Aziz, who also said the TTP's long-held commitment to impose sharia law across Pakistan was not open to debate. 

 

"Without sharia law, the Taliban won't accept (the talks) even one percent," he told AFP. 

 

"If some factions accept it, then the others won't accept it." The government has insisted that Pakistan's constitution must remain paramount. Given the gulf between the two sides, there has been scepticism about what the talks could achieve. 

 

Local peace deals with the militants in the past have quickly fallen apart. 

 

"Their real agenda is sharia," Aziz said, suggesting that all Pakistan's secular courts based on the common law system be abolished. 

 

"I don't think the government will accept this but they should, because war isn't the way forward." 

 

Government efforts to start peace talks last year came to an abrupt halt in November with the killing of TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike. 

 

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's announcement last week that he wanted to give peace talks another try caught many observers by surprise. 

 

The start of the year has seen a surge in militant violence, with more than 110 people killed, and many had expected the military to launch an offensive against TTP strongholds in Pakistan's tribal areas. 

 

On Afghanistan, Aziz said an endorsement of the security pact with Washington would scupper hopes for regional peace. 

 

"We think these (Afghanistan and Pakistan) are two brotherly countries. Peace in Pakistan means peace in Afghanistan and vice versa," he said. 

 

If Afghanistan signs the agreement, he said, "war will continue, and the clash between Muslims and the US will continue." 

 

"If the agreement goes ahead, then the losses they (US) have experienced before, they will experience once again," he added. 

 

The TTP have some links to the Afghan Taliban and pledge allegiance to their supreme leader Mullah Omar. 

 

But while the Afghan Taliban's fight is focused on Karzai's government and its NATO backers, the TTP's main target is the Pakistani state. 

 

Haq, the head of the Dar-ul-Uloom Haqqania seminary that counts Mullah Omar as a graduate, said: "If Americans remain in Afghanistan, there will be no peace in the region, it will be same, it will be unsafe." 

 

Underlining the parlous security situation in Pakistan, eight people were killed in a suicide bombing targeting minority Shiite Muslims in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday. 

 

Mufti Hassan Swati, the head of the TTP's Peshawar wing, claimed the attack, though the group's central spokesman Shahidullah Shahid earlier denied it. 

 

Asked why they attacked while talks were going on, Swati told AFP: "The peace talks are under way but there is no ceasefire. We will continue attacks until a ceasefire is announced." 

 

Islamabad reacted furiously to the killing of Mehsud last November, accusing Washington of torpedoing peace efforts. 

 

There have been only three drone attacks in Pakistan since then and none in January, the first calendar month without a strike in two years, according to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. 

 

This restraint may give Sharif some political space for talks, but American sources have warned that they will still target militants seen as a direct threat to the US. 

[cherlapalli_jailer]

pichha naa kodukulu

[cherlapalli_jailer]

Hmmmm

 

emito

[perugu_vada]

Vaallu theeskunna goothilo vaalle paduthunaru, once the govt themselves funded e terrorist groups ki, ipudu they are on their own

[allu_arjun_fan]

pichha naa kodukulu

 

evaru?...america valla....afghanistan valla....pakistan valla?...

[pinky123]

:(