Govt, Taliban hold initial talks

In recent months, government intermediaries have held talks with Taliban exploring ways to jump-start peace negotiations, intelligence officials and a senior militant commander said.
A peace deal between the authorities and the Taliban could represent the best hope of ending years of fighting that has killed thousands of security personnel and civilians. But it is unclear whether the preliminary talks will gain traction or if the Taliban are unified enough to actually strike a deal. It is also uncertain whether a deal could last.
In the past, the government has cut peace deals with the Taliban, but none of them have held. The agreements have been criticized for allowing the militants to regroup and rebuild their strength to resume fighting the government and foreign troops in Afghanistan. Talk of a new peace deal could be troubling to the US if it is seen as providing militants with greater space to carry out operations in neighboring Afghanistan.
However, US push for a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban could make it difficult to oppose an agreement in Pakistan. The government delegations that held talks with the Taliban over roughly the past six months have included former civilian and military officials and tribal elders, the intelligence officials and a senior militant commander said in recent interviews, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
As a confidence building measure, the Taliban released five intelligence officials who were kidnapped in Balochistan, the officials and the commander said in the interviews. Taliban’s top demand is that the army pull out from South Waziristan, which served as the group’s main sanctuary before a large military offensive in 2009, said the commander, who is close to Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
The army could be replaced by the paramilitary Frontier Corps, but the militants have demanded that only local police conduct patrols. They also want the government to pay compensation for damages incurred during the South Waziristan operation, free Taliban prisoners and allow the group’s leaders to move freely throughout the country. According to the intelligence officials and the militants, Taliban’s leadership council held a meeting in mid-September in which they came up with these demands.
Some analysts have argued that the Taliban has splintered into so many different groups that it might be difficult for the leadership in South Waziristan to agree to a comprehensive peace deal. The government held a meeting of all major political parties at the end of September in which they agreed that the government must attempt to start peace talks with the Taliban. But it is unclear what conditions the government and, more importantly, the powerful military would agree to.