ISLAMABAD: A member of government negotiating team to hold talks with the Taliban, Rustam Shah Mohmand has said that the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) should renounce violence and join the national mainstream.
In an interview, he said that the constitution belongs to 180 million people of Pakistan and it cannot be amended on the demand of any single group.
Rustam Shah said that the peace dialogue process has not been stopped‚ but deadlocked due to Karachi and Mohmand incidents. Moreover, he suggested to revive the dialogue for the sake of peace in the country.
Meanwhile‚ coordinator of Taliban dialogue committee Maulana Yousuf shah has contacted the Taliban Shura asking it to hold a meeting to review the dialogue process with the government.
Deadlock in government, Taliban talks enters 8th day
The deadlock in talks between the government and Taliban committees persists even after eight days and neither of them has contacted each other.
The members of both the committees have not yet met with each other since the TTP Mohmand chapter claimed the killing of 23 Frontier Corps soldiers on February 16, who were kidnapped in June 2010.
In a press conference in Islamabad on February 20, the Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that carrying on with peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban amid terrorist attacks throughout the country would be injustice to the victims of such attacks.
