ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's military will not let Taliban rebels set conditions for peace talks as the government seeks dialogue to end the insurgency, the army chief said Monday. The statement from General Ashfaq Kayani came a day after two senior military officers were killed by a Taliban bomb in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the military is fighting Al-Qaeda and Taliban-led militants. Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan Sunday announced preconditions for any peace talks, saying troops must be withdrawn from the tribal areas and its prisoners released. “It is understandable to give peace a chance through a political process but no one should have any misgivings that we would let terrorists coerce us into accepting their terms,” Kayani said. Politicians last week gave their backing to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's calls to begin talks with the Taliban. But Kayani warned that militants “will not be allowed to take advantage of it (talks offer)”. The army, he said, “has the ability and the will to take the fight to the terrorists”. On Sunday seven security personnel including a major-general and a lieutenant-colonel died in four separate attacks. Maj. Gen. Sana Ullah Khan, the commander of an army division in the erstwhile Taliban stronghold of Swat, Lt. Col. Tauseef Ahmad and a soldier were killed on Sunday in an IED attack by the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Previous peace deals with the Taliban have quickly broken down and been sharply criticized for allowing the extremists time to regroup before fresh attacks. Analysts and security experts have criticized the government's plan to hold talks with the Taliban, saying it will give militants an opportunity to re-group and strengthen their position. The Taliban have demanded the release of over 4,000 detained militants and the withdrawal of the army from the northwest and tribal areas as pre-conditions for talks. Late on the night September 14, one personnel of the Khasadar militia was killed and four more were injured when militants attacked a patrol party near Bannu in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Early on September 15, a soldier and a paramilitary personnel were killed when two army posts located on the Miranshah-Mir Ali road in the tribal belt were targeted with IEDs. Two soldiers were injured in this attack. Pakistan says more than 40,000 people have been killed in bomb and suicide attacks staged by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-led militants who oppose Islamabad's US alliance. — Agencies
