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Taliban says government has ignored demands
A ceasefire has been in place with the Pakistani Taliban for a while now. Negotiations have been underway with the Taliban, but an announcement has now been made that the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) won’t extend the ceasefire that began in March according to BBC.
That means that the truce between the Taliban and Pakistani government has ended. A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said that the ceasefire was ending because the government was ignoring their demands. The spokesman also said that the Taliban remains committed to peace talks.
The ceasefire originally started on March 1 and was later extended to April 10. Both the Taliban and the government stopped striking at each other during the ceasefire. TTP says that the government had been completely silent on the initial demands made by the Taliban, and that is why the ceasefire won’t be extended.
Negotiations between Pakistan and the TTP went on for a long time with no resolution being made according to sources. TTP denied that it had anything to do with an attack that happened during the ceasefire when a bomb went off in a market killing at least 20 people.
Some reports indicate that the TTP sits at the head of network of independent militant groups all with their own agendas. Some of these groups reportedly don’t favor peace talks. There is no word now on whether the peace talks will continue or if the ceasefire might be reinstated with the TTP.