Pakistani Taliban accepts PM talks offer

Pakistani Taliban Monday accepted talks offer by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, raising hopes for end of bloodshed if two sides would reach any ceasefire agreement. Prime Minister Gilani said on Sunday that his government will hold talks with Taliban but the army will launch operation in the tribal regions if the talks were failed.  Major political and religious parties in a conference last week asked the government to hold talks with the armed groups to end violence in the country.  Top military leadership had also attended the conference and observers believe that the decision to hold talks with Taliban had also the military’s backing.  Deputy Chief of Tehreek-e -Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, welcomed Prime Minister’s talks offer and said that his group believes in peace and is ready for direct talks with the government, conditionally without any intermediaries.  Pakistan army says that Maulavi Faqir has now established bases in Afghanistan’s border region after fleeing the Bajaur tribal region as the result of military operation.  Faqir also asked the government to revisit its relations with the US. He told section of the Pakistani media that the group ‘believes in peace but said that TTP did not want the government in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtoonnkhwa to be a part of the talks, giving no reason.  He added that his group does not have any agenda against Pakistan, but only wanted imposition of Islamic law in the country.