40-day Talilban ceasefire expires

KARACHI: The ten-day extension in ceasefire announced by the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is set to expire today – Thursday, April 10.

The ceasefire publicly declared by the TTP in two phases lasted for a total of 40 days. Initially the TTP militants announced to hold fire for 30 days – a full month of March – and upon reaching its expiry they extended it for another 10 days till April 10.

The ceasefire did bring some relief in terms of deadly violence, but terrorist attacks never come to a complete end. However, the TTP never missed to condemn the attacks in this period.

During the 40-day ceasefire only one formal round of direct talks was held between the government negotiation committee and the Taliban Shura.

At the time of announcing the second phase of ceasefire, the TTP lamented that they did not get a positive response from the government during the first 30 days.

Later, the government released 19 TTP-linked detainees but the Taliban said neither they were their members nor did the government handed them any list of the people it freed.

On the other hand the TTP did not release even a single non-combatant in their custody during the 40 days of ceasefire.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *