Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has announced that he will soon send a delegation of "tribal elders" to Afghanistan for talks with the Taliban.
Gandapur said that the federal government's efforts to make peace with neighbouring countries have not borne fruit.
Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper reported on Wednesday, January 21, that Gandapur said at a press conference in Dera Ismail Khan that the "Afghan issue" would only be resolved through dialogue.
"The delegation will go to Afghanistan within two weeks and hold talks (with the Taliban)," the chief minister said. We will find solutions to problems. I hope they will cooperate with our jirga (tribal leaders' board)."
After the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, the Pakistani government and army have repeatedly held talks with Taliban officials about curbing the threat posed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Earlier, Pakistani political and military officials hosted by Sirajuddin Haqqani in Kabul held talks with TTP leaders.
The talks ended inconclusively after several months and a short-lived ceasefire between the army and the Pakistani Taliban, and clashes resumed.
In recent months, the TTP has intensified its attacks on areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the Pakistani army has recently stepped up clearance operations in various areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Pakistani army and government accuse the Afghan Taliban of not cooperating with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in curbing the threats, but the Pakistani Taliban are organising their operations from Afghan soil against targets on Pakistani soil.
The Pakistani army recently bombed the border areas of Afghanistan's southeastern provinces several times.
