LADHA, March 18: The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) announced on Monday that it was temporarily suspending its offer for talks because of the government’s ‘non-serious’ attitude. It asked people to stay away from elections which, it said, was only serving the interests of infidels and enemies of Islam.

In a video released to the media, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said the militant outfit was withdrawing its offer of peace talks with the government.

“The non-seriousness of the government towards our peace overtures has shown that they want to push this country and its people into bloodshed and violence,” he said. “This shows who is responsible for lawlessness,” he argued.

The offer of the TTP, – an umbrella platform of militant groups – in January prompted the ANP and JUI-F recently to convene multi-party conferences to evolve political consensus and work out terms and conditions for negotiations.

The banned militant group had named PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, Jamaat-i-Islami leader Munawar Hasan and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to serve as guarantors in the proposed talks on behalf of the military.

The army has kept quiet on the matter though the Peshawar corps commander told reporters in Swat on Sunday that the military would have no objection if the government chose to initiate dialogue with the TTP. The government has not come up with a formal response. Former interior minister Rehman Malik said recently that such talks could be held only if the militants laid down their weapons.

The multi-party conferences, which were attended also by representatives of the ruling parties, said talks could be held with the militants within the framework of the constitution and law of the land.