PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Pakistani Taliban announced Saturday that the group will observe a one-month cease-fire as part of efforts to negotiate a peace deal with the government, throwing new life into a foundering peace process.
Spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a statement e-mailed to reporters that the top leadership of the militant group has instructed all of its units to comply with the cease-fire.
“Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has initiated talks with the government with sincerity and for good purpose,” Shahid said, calling the group by its formal name.
The leader of the government’s negotiating team, Irfan Sadiqui, praised the cease-fire announcement while speaking on Pakistan’s Geo Television, saying the government will review any written document from the Taliban about it.
“Today, we are seeing a big breakthrough,” Sadiqui said.
In recent weeks, Pakistani jets and helicopters have been striking militant hideouts in the northwest, after previous efforts at negotiations broke down when a militant faction announced it had killed 23 Pakistani soldiers.
The Pakistani Taliban has been trying to overthrow the government and establish its own hard-line form of Islam across Pakistan for years. Tens of thousands of people have died in attacks.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has long promoted negotiations as a way to end the crisis.
Critics of the peace process say militants have used previous negotiations to simply regroup. They also question whether there is room to negotiate with militants who don’t recognize the Pakistani constitution.
The militants in the past have called for the removal of all military forces in the tribal areas as well as an end to American drone strikes.
As the military has been hammering militant hideouts, many in Pakistan have been watching to see whether the government would order a large-scale ground operation in the North Waziristan tribal region that is considered the militants’ stronghold. Such an operation could spark a backlash of attacks in other parts of the country.
A temporary cease-fire could be difficult to ensure. Some analysts point out that the Pakistani Taliban is not a unified organization.
