Pakistani Taliban fighters announced a ceasefire on Wednesday after months of clashes with security forces and suicide attacks across the north-west of the country.
But a military spokesperson said that while fighting had died down no truce had been agreed.
”The government has shown leniency over the past four or five days,” Maulvi Omar, a spokesperson for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, told Reuters by telephone.
”That’s why we are declaring a ceasefire.”
Omar said the decision to call a ceasefire was taken at a shura, or council meeting, chaired by Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban and a prime suspect in the assassination of pro-Western opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in late December. — Reuters