Pakistan Taliban chief says he’s willing to talk: Reuters
Supporters of hardline pro-Taliban party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Nazaryati (JUI-N) shout anti – U.S. slogans during a protest in Quetta on May 2, 2011, after the killing of Osama Bin Laden by U.S. Special Forces in a ground operation in Pakistan’s hill station of Abbottabad.
Pakistan's Taliban will continue negotiating with the government, but it's not going to stop fighting anytime soon, said Hakimullah Mehsud in a video received by Reuters.
"We believe in dialogue but it should not be frivolous," said Mehsud. "Asking us to lay down arms is a joke."
The Taliban's message comes on the heels of three high-profile Taliban attacks in the Pakistani city of Peshawar this month. The attacks each underscored the Taliban's ability to strike well protected targets within the country– first by attacking the Peshawar airport, then by killing a senior politician, and most recently by kidnapping 22 paramilitary troops in the north.
The Taliban want Pakistan to rewrite its laws and constitution to conform with Islamic law, they explained in a letter on Thursday.
They believe that a negotiation was possible, however said that unless Pakistan stopped acting as an agent of the United States, the Taliban would never come a formal negotiation between the Taliban and the Pakistani government wouldn't work.
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