The Pakistani Taliban has said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has no rights to hold peace talks.
The group slammed Sharif for changing his mind and giving them preconditions to lay down weapons for the APC-backed peace talks.
The comments appeared to have been sparked by an interview Sharif made with the Wall Street Journal during a trip to New York, in which he said militants must lay down their arms and follow the constitution.
According to Dawn News, Sharif had also indicated during his meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry that while seeking a dialogue with the Taliban, the government is also considering a more vigorous police and military action against them should the talks fail.
A spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), while criticizing Sharif in an interview to a local news magazine, said his government was not serious about holding peace talks.
The spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, did not explicitly reject the offer, but his words gave little room for negotiations.