Talks on terms unacceptable, Taleban told

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military will not let Taleban rebels set conditions for peace talks as the government seeks dialogue to end the insurgency, the army chief said Monday.
The statement from General Ashfaq Kayani came a day after two senior military officers were killed by a Taleban bomb in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the military is fighting Al-Qaeda and Taleban-led militants.
Tehreek-i-Taleban Pakistan Sunday announced preconditions for any peace talks, saying troops must be withdrawn from the tribal areas and its prisoners released.
“It is understandable to give peace a chance through a political process but no one should have any misgivings that we would let terrorists coerce us into accepting their terms,” Kayani said.
Politicians last week gave their backing to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s calls to begin talks with the Taleban.
But Kayani warned that militants “will not be allowed to take advantage of it (talks offer).”
The army, he said, “has the ability and the will to take the fight to the terrorists.”
On Sunday seven security personnel including a major-general and a lieutenant-colonel died in four separate attacks.
Major-General Sana Ullah Khan was general officer commanding in the Swat valley, where the army sent 30,000 troops in 2009 to expel Taleban fighters.
Previous peace deals with the Taleban have quickly broken down and been sharply criticised for allowing the extremists time to regroup before fresh attacks.
Pakistan says more than 40,000 people have been killed in bomb and suicide attacks staged by the Taleban and Al-Qaeda-led militants who oppose Islamabad’s US alliance.