Pakistan's interior minister calls government-Taliban meeeting

Islamabad, April 23: Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has called a joint meeting Wednesday of the government and Taliban committees engaged in attempting to restore peace in the country's troubled north.

The meeting will discuss progress in dialogue process and chalk out future line of action, Geo News reported citing an interior ministry statement.

It will be the first meeting between government-appointed committees and Taliban after the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) April 16 announced end of its the 40-day-long ceasefire.

TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid had said in a statement that the government did not give a satisfactory response to the Taliban's ceasefire and 50 of their detained members were killed during this period, the report said.

The TTP spokesman said that the decision to end the ceasefire was taken by the Taliban shura.

However, Shahid said that despite the end of ceasefire the dialogue process with the government would continue.

The TTP had declared a month-long ceasefire on March 1 during the dialogue process with the government. The ceasefire was later extended for 10 days till April 10.

IANS