Pak won't heed Taliban's ceasefire offer

New Delhi: A Taliban Commander in Buner has called up The News' and offered ceasefire in the whole Malakand division in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). However, the Pakistani government says there is now no room for dialogue.

President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed to continue the military offensive against Taliban in Pakistan's restive northwest region until "normalcy" is restored in Swat and its adjoining areas.

"It's going to carry on until life will come back to normalcy," Zardari told reporters here after his meeting with members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee along with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had on Thursday said "strong measures" will be taken to restore order in areas affected by the activities of Taliban as an all-out military offensive was underway in NWFP.

Zardari also sought to assure the international community, which has raised concerns over the prospect of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Taliban, that Pakistan's atomic arsenal was safe.

"All the responsible authorities who are responsible for such positions in the world are aware of the situation and have attested to the fact that our nuclear capability is in safe hands," he said.

Zardari, who is in Washington for the trilateral summit of the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan, said the government in Islamabad has realised that rise of extremism and growth of Taliban is a "regional" as well as "a worldwide problem". "It's not (just) Afghan or Tora Bora or mountains (of the region)," he said.

John Kerry, Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, termed the meeting as "unprecedented" with frank exchange between all Senators. Senator Lugar, a Ranking Member of the Committee said he asked "pointed and direct" questions to the two presidents.

"We asked the two Presidents and their officials questions on President Karzai's political campaign. How he's appealing to women and how they're responding. We asked, what is the relationship between the ISI... (Lt General) Pasha spoke to the question of why the Taliban exists, why they have become so powerful and what the relationship is," Lugar said.

He said US officials also asked their Pakistani and Afghan counterparts whether the people of their countries desire a US presence in their nations.

"... Because if you don't, that is going to inform what we think as Senators and those responsible for our constituents in this country," he said.

He said he is certain that Obama and Zardari took up the issue of nuclear weapons in Pakistan. "It's an existential question for the world. I have no further comment, nor have I been advised what their plans are".

US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said the next trilateral meeting would be held after presidential elections in Afghanistan in August.

"This was the second of our trilateral meetings... a big step forward. Working operations are beginning," he said.

(With inputs from PTI and CNN-IBN)