Afghan Taliban asks Pakistan government to pursue peace talks with TTP: Report

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Afghan Taliban has asked the Pakistan government to initiate another round of negotiations with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan terror group, with a top leader in Kabul telling Islamabad that it should prefer peace over war, a media report said on Saturday. Pakistan's latest efforts aimed at seeking action against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) by Kabul could not make headway, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Pakistan dispatched its special envoy to Kabul this week on a three-day trip to convey a clear message that Afghanistan's Taliban-led interim government will have to take decisive action against the TTP, blamed for a number of major terror attacks in the country. Ambassador Asad Durrani met with Afghanistan's Acting Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi and other officials during his trip.

But the Afghan Taliban told him after a series of meetings that Pakistan should pursue the path of peace instead of the use of force, the newspaper reported. Official sources familiar with the closed-door engagements told the paper that the Afghan Taliban leadership was told in clear terms that Pakistan's patience was wearing thin vis-a-vis the TTP.

On the issue, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch also at her weekly news briefing this week said: «The issue of terrorism...is an issue of serious concern to Pakistan. And Pakistan has raised this issue with the Afghan authorities on multiple occasions and at every important engagement that takes place between Pakistan and the Afghan interim authorities.» «We have discussed the threat of terrorism emanating from the Afghan soil,» she added when asked whether Ambassador Durrani took up the issue