Taliban demands release of prisoners ahead of talks

Agencies/IslamabadPakistan-based Taliban yesterday called on the government to release imprisoned fighters as a condition for peace talks. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan delivered the message in a seven-minute video in which he accused Pakistan of not considering the offer seriously. “Our doubts are growing that the government is not serious ... Still, in the interest of Pakistan, Muslims and Islam, we will wait for some more time,” Ehsan said in the video. On December 28, TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud said in a video message that his group was willing to hold “earnest” talks with the government but would not disarm. In the latest message, Ehsan explicitly mentioned distrust of the powerful military, accusing it of violating previous peace deals. Ehsan said the government must release Muslim Khan, the top aide to Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah, whose rebels seized the north-western Swat valley before being flushed out by the security forces in a 2009 offensive. The Pakistani military arrested Khan and four other TTP members in September 2009. Now the Taliban have sought the release of the five as well as another Taliban figure identified as Maulvi Omar. The Pakistani government has not commented on the peace offer, which came a day after Taliban militants killed 13 members of the security forces and 11 civilians in an attack in the north-western town of Sarai Naurang. Ehsan threatened attacks on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, which strongly criticises Islamist militants and is a main political force in Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi. Taliban has claimed responsibility for two attacks against the MQM last month, which killed at least eight people, including a regional parliamentarian. Information Minister Rehman Malik has warned of plans elements were planning “massacre” in Karachi in February. In the video, Ehsan was seen with Taliban operative Adnan Rasheed, who escaped from a prison last April after it was attacked by the Taliban militants. Rasheed was on a death row for plotting to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf. Two masked men carrying assault rifles stood behind Ehsan. Children and crowds could be heard in the background. The Pakistani Taliban also condemned the French military intervention in Mali as an “ideological war”. French President Francois Hollande visited Mali on Saturday and vowed his troops would stay as long as necessary to continue the fight against Islamist rebels who had taken control of the country’s north for 10 months. An offensive led by French troops has driven rebels from all but one of Mali’s major towns, but there are fears the Islamists will now wage a guerrilla campaign from the sparsely populated north. Ehsanullah Ehsan condemned the French intervention, which has had logistical support from other Western countries. “The French government has attacked mujahedeen in Mali and America has also agreed to support France. I ask the whole Muslim world to unite because it is an ideological war,” Ehsan said. He said the forces of “non-believers” were united and urged Muslims to come together. “If America is supporting France on an ideological basis then in same way all Muslims should unite and support one another.”