Pakistan Taliban end ceasefire, order nationwide attacks

Pakistan’s Taliban said yesterday they have called off a shaky ceasefire agreed with the government in June and ordered fighters to stage attacks across the country.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a separate entity from the Taliban in Afghanistan but sharing a similar Islamist ideology, have been responsible for hundreds of attacks and thousands of deaths since emerging in 2007.

They agreed to a truce earlier this year after Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers took a prominent role in brokering peace talks, but negotiations made little progress and there were frequent breaches.

“We... have shown our continued patience so that the negotiation process is not sabotaged,” the TTP said in a statement.

“But the army and intelligence agencies do not stop and continue the attacks, so now our retaliatory attacks will also start across the country.”

Less than two weeks ago the TTP claimed an ambush that killed six policemen in northwest Pakistan, claiming they were plotting a “raid” on their base in the area.