End to drone strikes among TTP demands

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan raised the stakes for reaching a peace deal with the government by insisting, among other demands, that Islamabad develop a policy to prevent US drone strikes against terrorists during the talks.
They presented a list of 35 demands to the government at a meeting in South Waziristan on Friday, Taliban commanders said.
The militants said they would abide by a cease-fire as long as talks continue, and the government has said it would respond to the demands. But the tentative peace overtures threaten to fall apart on the insurgents’ insistence that the government find a way to prevent US drone strikes. Past deals with the Taliban have collapsed after militant leaders were killed by drones.
The demands from the Taliban side, according to The Wall Street Journal, would give them nearly unconstrained control of Pakistan’s tribal areas. The tribal areas are already considered a major regional and international security threat as a sanctuary for jihadists from all over the globe.
“I have serious concerns that this process is legitimizing the militants,” said Bushra Gohar, a former Awami National Party lawmaker. “If the government agrees to all these demands, this is clear surrender,” she said. She said the demands would turn the tribal areas into a separate “emirate for the Taliban”.
Even when the US pursues peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, it is deeply uneasy about Pakistan’s negotiations with its homegrown terrorists. US officials have been reluctant to comment publicly, however, wary that they will be blamed if the Pakistani process fails, the newspaper said.
The TTP, also demanded an amnesty for its members, the freeing of its prisoners and compensation for death and property damage from US drone strikes and Pakistan Army operations in the tribal areas.
Jan Achakzai, a spokesman for the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, which is playing a role in the peace talks and is a partner of the government, said that the government should be able to accept most of the militants’ demands.
“An amnesty is part of any reconciliation process, so that should not be a problem. Shariah is very easy to have in the tribal areas,” said Achakzai. “The aim is for these people to agree to live peacefully there.”
He said that it would be impossible to ask the militants to disarm, as guns are “part of the tribal culture”.
He added, “The one thing that the government cannot guarantee is that drone strikes won’t happen. The Americans do what they want with those. If that becomes a condition from the militants, then the peace process is in trouble.”