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The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a coalition of jihadists in the country’s northwestern Pashtun areas, on Feb. 6 declared an indefinite cease-fire with security forces. A TTP spokesman told The Associated Press that the cease-fire came about as a result of talks with the government. However, Inter-Services Public Relations Director-General Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the army is unaware of talks with the militants and has received no formal communication of a cease-fire. Pakistan’s AAJ TV reported that the truce applied to all areas from the South Waziristan agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to Swat, including Kohat and Darra Adam Khel in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Despite Abbas’ denial, the cease-fire probably was not a unilateral move on the militants’ part. The announcement of the cease-fire came just two days after TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud offered to stop attacks. According to a GEO TV report, Mehsud’s offer came through Saleh Shah, a senator from South Waziristan affiliated with the country’s largest Islamist party, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazlur Rahman. Shah has mediated peace deals between the government and the militants in the tribal badlands several times before.
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