Pakistani military hits militant leader's hideout

The Pakistani military said it had bombed the hideout of a militant leader on Sunday, killing five insurgents, one day after the Taliban declared a one-month cease-fire to pursue stalled peace talks with the government.

The target of the attack, Mullah Tamanchey, had directed a deadly assault against a convoy carrying a polio vaccination team and security forces on Saturday in which 12 people were killed, the military said.

"The government is not going to tolerate any act of terror and any act will be replied to," said a Pakistani security official who asked not to be identified.

Hours after the attack on the convoy, the Taliban said they would observe a one-month cease-fire to try to revive peace talks that failed last month. They also called on other militant groups to observe the cease-fire.

Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a statement e-mailed to reporters that the top leadership of the militant group has instructed all of its units to comply with the cease-fire.

"Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has initiated talks with the government with sincerity and for good purpose," Shahid said, referring to the group by its formal name.

The leader of the government's negotiating team, Irfan Sadiqui, praised the cease-fire announcement while speaking on Pakistan's Geo Television, saying the government will review any written document from the Taliban about it.

"Today, we are seeing a big breakthrough," Sadiqui said.

The Pakistani Taliban, an alliance of militant groups, says it is fighting to overthrow the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and replace it with a state ruled under strict Islamic law.

Sharif has been pursuing peace talks since he was elected in May. Soon after the talks finally began on Feb 6, the Taliban bombed a police bus in Karachi, killing 13 people.

The talks foundered days later when a Taliban faction claimed to have killed 23 paramilitary troops. The same night, the military began bombing areas in the northwest that it said were militant hideouts.

Reuters-AP

(China Daily 03/03/2014 page12)