Days after launching a terror strike on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport in which 28 people lost their lives, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has claimed responsibility for the operation, has said that it is still willing to negotiate with the Pakistan Government for peace, provided such talks are conducted in a sincere and responsible manner.
In a Facebook post accessed by the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor of the Washington D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), TTP central spokesman Shahidullah Shahid was quoted, as saying: "Even now, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan will not reject the negotiations if carried out with sincerity and full responsibility."
The TTP has also described the atack on the airport in Karachi as a "virtuous operation" carried out with "full courage".
According to MEMRI, the TTP's Facebook post declares the operation as one a revenge and a response for the martyrdom of their respected Emir Hakimullah Mehsud.
The TTP maintains that it had begun negotiations with the government with extreme sincerity and seriousness, about which a formal announcement was made in clear and direct words by Hakimullah Mehsud, and accuses the Pakistan Government of wanting to use the negotiations as a political and military weapon.
According to MEMRI, the TTP says that it has a strategy in place to counter what it called the Pakistan Government's "satanic attacks carried out behind the mask/pretext of the negotiations.