Pakistani Taliban Expected to Announce Ceasefire on Monday

Group Executes 23 Captured Paramilitaries

The Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is reportedly planning to announce a ceasefire late Monday evening, halting the ongoing clashes with the military in an attempt to give the peace talks a shot in the arm.

The TTP has pushed for some reciprocity in the deal, including an end to military offensives against them and release some detainees. A followup announcement suggested this was unlikely.

The talks don’t seem to be uniformly supported by the TTP’s factions, and the Mohmand Agency auxiliary announced it has executed 23 members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) today.

Officially, the TTP-Mohmand says the killings were retaliation for the deaths of some of their members in custody. The timing suggests the TTP-Mohmand’s real goal was to sabotage the talks, however.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.