Tribal elders hold talks with TTP in Kabul

PESHAWAR: A jirga of prominent tribal elders and elected representatives on Wednesday arrived in Kabul and held a meeting with senior leaders of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), well-placed sources told The News. Maulana Saleh Shah, former senator and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) leader from South Waziristan tribal district, is leading the Pakistani jirga members.

On the other hand, the two sides, senior Pakistani security officials and the TTP representatives, after a series of meetings agreed to take a break for a while and let the tribal elders discuss some thorny issues with the TTP leaders.

The TTP leaders denied reports to have extended the ceasefire for an indefinite time, saying they had assured the Pakistani negotiation team that they would not carry out attacks when the peace process was in progress.

According to sources privy to the peace process, there were many ups and downs in meetings between senior Pakistani security officials and the TTP representatives, and at some point, they would feel if the peace process had derailed.

However, the Afghan Taliban would intervene, resolve issues and restore the peace process that helped build up trust between the two sides that used to fight against each other for the past many years.

"The talks between the Pakistani negotiators and the TTP representatives went well. They had developed an understanding on key issues that are helpful for restoration of peace in the country," a member of the Afghan Taliban told The News on condition of anonymity.

According to sources, the two sides had long lists of their demands or wishes and some of them were unrealistic. "On many demands, the two negotiations teams had agreed and pledged to take practical measures for addressing those issues. However, some of the demands of the two sides seemed difficult and that’s why it was decided to seek help from the Pakistani tribal elders,” he said.

The sources said the Pakistani negotiation team had agreed to the demands for the release of prisoners and compensation of the tribesmen for their losses during the military operations. But the TTP leaders, according to the sources, had made some difficult demands such as revival of the erstwhile Fata (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and their return to Pakistan along with arms and ammunition.

"The TTP leadership is against the Fata merger and they wanted the previous status of Fata. Secondly, the Pakistani Taliban wanted to return with arms and don't want to surrender to the government,” a member of the tribal jirga said. The Pakistani jirga members held their introductory meeting with eight-member negotiation team of the TTP in Kabul and it was decided to discuss the issues in detail today, Thursday.

The TTP leadership in their first meeting handed over letters written in Urdu and Pashto languages in which they raised major issues that, according to them, brought violence to the Pakhtun-inhabited areas.

According to sources, a prominent Taliban leader and Afghanistan’s acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani was facilitating the peace process between Pakistan and the Pakistani Taliban.

He had facilitated several meetings in the past and initially junior level people from the two sides used to attend meetings but later when the peace process matured, Sirajuddin Haqqani encouraged senior people from the two parties to join and help resolve their issues.

"The basic purpose of involving the tribal elders and taking them to Afghanistan was to resolve major differences that emerged in the peace talks. They would like to sit with the Taliban and convince them that revival of the erstwhile Fata is not an easy exercise. Its status was changed by the parliament and again it would be the parliament to restore its previous status," the tribal elder explained.

He said they would convince the Taliban leaders to soften their demands as return to Pakistan with arms would not be a realistic demand and neither the government nor the Pakistani public will accept it.