30 Wednesday November 10 2021 | the times
Wo r l d
Pakistan has agreed a month-long
ceasefire with the country’s version of
the Taliban, potentially bringing an end
to more than a decade of conflict.
The tentative truce with the Tehrik-i-
Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as
the Pakistani Taliban, was announced
after talks mediated by the new Taliban
government in Afghanistan.
Relatives of those who died during
the group’s brutal campaign of violence
said they could not support Imran
Khan’s government negotiating with
“murderers and terrorists”. Others
questioned why a ceasefire could not
have come sooner.
Formed in 2007, the TTP has been
responsible for thousands of deaths but
became best known in the West for the
attack on Malala Yousafzai, who recov-
ered from bullet wounds and won the
Nobel peace prize for her activism in
favour of female education.
The Pakistani Taliban were also
responsible for the 2014 massacre at a
Up on the roof Those wishing to emulate the builders of Manhattan’s skyscrapers can now use a safety harness at 30 Hudson Yards to lean out at a height of 1,300ft
The founder of China’s most successful
chain of private tutoring schools has
closed 1,500 of its branches under gov-
ernment pressure and invited some of
his teaching staff to sell farm produce
online instead.
Hundreds of private tutors at the
New Oriental Education and Techno-
logy Group in Beijing will no longer be
teaching algebra or English grammar
SETH WENIG/APPeshawar massacre families
condemn Taliban ceasefire
military-operated school in Peshawar,
which resulted in the deaths of 141
people, including 132 schoolchildren.
That atrocity provoked a military cam-
paign against the group that reduced
their capacity to carry out attacks.
A spokesman for the TTP, Moham-
mad Khurasani, confirmed yesterday
that a ceasefire would last until Decem-
ber 9. Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s
information minister, had earlier an-
nounced the agreement and said it
could be “extendable”, subject to con-
tinuing negotiations.
Ajun Khan, whose 15-year-old son,
Asfand, was killed in the school attack,
said: “We are not in favour of negotiat-
ing with these murderers and terrorists
and we would not accept any kind of
deal with them.” In a reference to the
mediated talks, he added: “This is the
Taliban’s government [in Afghanistan]
and their B team [in Pakistan] and we
are not trusting them”.
Dost Muhammad, whose son Asad
Aziz also died in Peshawar, said: “We
are not taken on board by this govern-
ment regarding talks with the killers ofour children. They have no right to
decide alone and talk with the TTP —
at least morally they should have in-
formed us before making any decision.”
Tufail Khan, father of Sher Shah, 15,
another of the victims, took a different
view, saying: “To save other children
from such attacks if the negotiations
bring peace then we will support this,
though we will not forgive the killers.”
There have been multiple peace
agreements between the Pakistani
state and the militant group, all previ-
ously short-lived. Previous deals, how-
ever, were led by the military, with civil-
ian governments mostly acting as wary
bystanders. This time the talks were
championed by Khan, 69, the former
cricketer who has long been a supporter
of talks with militant groups.
Chaudhry stressed that the talks with
the TTP were being held “strictly in line
with the constitution and the law of
Pakistan”. However, Afghan and Paki-
stani sources said that the TTP was de-
manding a blanket amnesty and release
of all its fighters in Pakistani custody in
exchange for extending the peace deal.Pakistan
Haroon Janjua Islamabad
Abducted girl
says woman
aided kidnap
Australia
Bernard Lagan Sydney
An accomplice may have been involved
in the abduction of Cleo Smith, police
believe, after the Australian girl was
said to have told officers that a woman
helped to care for her while she was
missing.
The four-year-old girl, who was on a
weekend camping trip with her family
and was taken from their tent while her
parents slept, was found locked in a
house in the remote Western Austra-
lian town of Carnarvon last Wednes-
day, 18 days after she vanished.
Terence Kelly, 36, has been chargedwith taking and imprisoning her. How-
ever, Cleo told investigators that a
woman would come to her accused
kidnapper’s house to “look after her”,
including to dress her and brush her
hair, Daily Mail Australia reported.
The police have not commented, but
detectives suddenly returned to the
small town of Carnarvon, nearly 600
miles from the Western Australian
capital of Perth, on Monday. Among
them was Cameron Blaine, who was
filmed asking Cleo “What’s your
name?” during her rescue.
Cleo was snatched from the remote
Blowholes campsite, 50 miles south of
Carnarvon, on October 16 She was
found in a house occupied by Kelly.
Blaine said that part of the investi-
gation’s focus was on whether “there
was anyone else involved”.China’s top private tutor turns to selling veg
but will instead sell apples, peppers and
sausages to support President Xi’s am-
bition of reviving China’s villages.
Yu Minhong, 59, the founder of New
Oriental, used an online broadcast on
Sunday to declare an end to the “era of
crammers”. Since summer the Com-
munist Party has been cracking down
on private schools and tutoring ser-
vices. Such companies may no longer
be run for profit.
New Oriental will still offer tuition in
subjects such as calligraphy and robot-ics, but pupils aged 6-15 will no longer
attend academic lessons. The company
will donate 70,000 desks and chairs to
rural schools.
The government has said curbing
profit-driven education is necessary as
part of its efforts to avert crisis in a rap-
idly ageing society. It claims the cost of
a good education, including private tui-
tion, is putting parents off having large
families. Some analysts suggest the
crackdown has more to do with a desire
to control and regulate all businesses.China
Didi Tang Beijing
Cleo Smith was
found after an
18-day ordealHalf-naked knifeman
shot and killed in Oslo
Norway A knifeman who
threatened people on the streets
of Oslo was shot by police and
died in hospital. A senior officer
told residents still jumpy after last
month’s bow-and-arrow attack
that the man was known to them
and was not a terrorist. A video
posted on social media shows the
topless man being rammed by a
police car. He gets up, opens the
passenger door and leans inside
the car. “He then attacked the
police with a knife, and shots
were fired,” a spokesman told
reporters. Jonas Gahr Stoere, the
prime minister, later reassured
Norwegians, saying that the city
was safer than most European
capitals. (AP)President impeached
over corruption claims
Chile The lower house of congress
has impeached President Piñera
over a deal to sell his family’s
stake in a mining company, but
the senate seems unlikely to oust
him. The centre-right leader, 71,
allegedly used offshore companies
to deal with the mining project
and the sale was said to hinge on
government policy. Details were
revealed in the Pandora Papers
leak last month. (AFP)11,000 refugees return
after rebels driven out
DR Congo The army has driven
insurgents from an area near the
eastern border, officers said,
allowing 11,000 refugees to start
returning from Uganda. Soldiers
came under fire on Sunday in
North Kivu province and blamed
the Tutsi M23 faction, one of
more than 120 militias that roam
the east. The UN said that the
civilian exodus was the largest
into Uganda for a year. (AFP)Harris on a mission to
mend French relations
France Kamala Harris, the
American vice-president, landed
in Paris on a mission to mend
relations after Australia backed
out of a €56 billion submarine
deal with France in favour of one
with the US in September. She
will meet President Macron,
attend a conference on Libya and
take part in commemorations for
the anniversary of the end of the
First World War. (AFP)Rescue for a bounder
that got up to no good
Australia Firefighters called out to
rescue a kangaroo from the roof
of a house were hesitant to
respond, thinking it had to be a
prank. But they found the animal
stuck on a roof in Mount Isa,
northwest Queensland. They
were able to coax it to the lowest
section of the roof, from where it
jumped to safety. How the
kangaroo managed to get on to
the roof remains a mystery.