A four-member team representing the government was holding talks with the rebel political council in North Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, Ibrahim said. The Taliban announced a one-month cease-fire in February to facilitate the talks, and the government reciprocated by halting airstrikes against the militants.
Ibrahim said both sides would try to agree on a permanent cease-fire during the first round of direct talks. The attempts by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to end the conflict through negotiations have triggered fears that it might provide Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda a chance to regroup ahead of a planned drawdown by international forces in Afghanistan.
Earlier, the government-nominated negotiators reached via helicopter North Waziristan on Wednesday to hold the first-ever direct talks with the Taliban leadership. The government committee members first flew to Peshawar where the representatives boarded a helicopter arranged by the Ministry of Interior. According to reports, the government committee members along with the Taliban liaison committee chief Maulana Samiul Haq reached North Waziristan in a helicopter. Other members of Taliban liaison committee reached North Waziristan Agency from Peshawar. Soon after their arrival in NWA they were taken to an undisclosed location for a meeting with the TTP shura.
The government committee comprises Habibullah Khattak, Arbab Arif, Fawad Hassan Fawad and Rustam Shah Mohmand. Federal Secretary Habibullah Khattak is leading the government committee. The direct talks were originally to take place on Tuesday, but bad weather prevented the government helicopter from traveling to the north-west.
The talks, promoted by Sharif, have proceeded in fits and starts since he took office last year. So far, the two sides held only indirect talks, with the Taliban represented by two clerics, Khan, the professor, and Maulana Samiul Haq. Haq was also on board the helicopter from Islamabad on Wednesday, traveling with Khattak in an effort to facilitate the meeting.
According to a TV channel, as the government committee and the Taliban leadership held direct talks in North Waziristan, US drones started hovering over the tribal belt considered to be the safe havens of the most feared terror outfit.
The flights of unmanned CIA operated drones in North Waziristan came hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hailed the 90-day pause in US drone strikes. The pro-talks lobby in Pakistan has been blaming Washington for sabotaging Islamabad's earlier efforts to engage the militants in negotiations to put an end to the bloodshed which saw over 40000 people being killed across the country. Government of Pakistan had also strongly condemned US after drones killed TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud in the past.