PressTV.ir | Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:30:43 GMT

Pakistan puts Taliban war on hold amid secret talks

The Pakistani army has long been engaged in a war against the Taliban. Recent reports from the country, however, suggest that operations against a top militant and his group have been put on hold.

Pakistan has temporarily shelved its plans to push into militant havens in Waziristan amid reports of secret talks between Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud and the Pakistani army.

Colleagues of Meshed in the troubled northwestern Waziristan region have reportedly advised the top militant to be on good terms with the government in Islamabad.

“We have been trying to convince both sides (Mehsud and the government) that fighting will only bring death and destruction to South Waziristan so they should talk,” Pakistani Aaj TV quoted an influential tribal elder from the Mehsud tribe as saying.

Tribal leaders have told the Taliban chief that the fight against the Pakistani army is “spoiling their plan” and that the only beneficiaries from the violence are the US-led troops stationed in neighboring Afghanistan.

Mehsud, whose grim rule in Pakistan’s tribal districts is marked by suicide bombings and throat-slitting, has contacted the government through mediators for peace talks.

The firebrand leader will be required to end suicide attacks inside the nuclear-armed country, according to official and tribal sources.

In return, the army would be required to delay the launch of attacks against thousands of well-trained Mehsud followers in the troubled northwestern Waziristan region.

Mehsud, a warlord in his late 30s, has claimed responsibility for dozens of devastating attacks on both civilians and security forces.

The Pakistani military had intended to mount an all-out assault on pro-Taliban militants in the Waziristan tribal region along the Afghan border where Tehrik-e-Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and thousands of his men remain in hiding.

US officials in the past have said that any possible compromise between the Pakistani army and the Taliban would increase attacks on US-led forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

More than seventy foreign troops have so far been killed in insurgent attacks across Afghanistan this month, particularly in the troubled southern and eastern provinces.

More than two hundred foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year.