The Pakistani Taliban yesterday announced a one-month ceasefire aimed at reviving peace talks after receiving what it said were government assurances it would not be attacked.

A government negotiator could not confirm that there were such guarantees, but said talks could be restarted if the ceasefire was honoured.

Speculation has mounted in recent weeks that the Pakistani military is planning an offensive against the insurgents after talks between the militants and government broke down.

“The senior leadership of the Taliban advises all subgroups to respect the Taliban’s call for a ceasefire and abide by it and completely refrain from all jihadi activities in this time period,” spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a statement.

Peace talks between the Pakistani government and Taliban insurgents began on February 6 but broke down after insurgents said they executed 23 men from a government paramilitary force in revenge for the killing of their fighters by army forces.

Peace talks began on February 6

The Pakistani Taliban is fighting to topple Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s democratically elected government and impose Sharia law in the nuclear-armed nation.

Attacks have been on the rise since Sharif came to power in May, promising a negotiated end to violence. His stance unnerved global powers already worried that withdrawal of most US-led troops from Afghanistan in 2014 would leave a security vacuum.

Senior Taliban officials told Reuters that they announced the ceasefire after receiving assurances from the civilian government that they would not be attacked.

“Senior officials of the federal government promised us the government and its law-enforcement agencies would not take any action against our people in the country,” a senior Taliban commander said.

“You can say the government first announced ceasefire and we did it later.”

He declined to say who in the government made the guarantee.

Spokesman Shahid confirmed that the Taliban shura agreed unanimously on the ceasefire after receiving government promises.

Irfan Siddiqui, a government negotiator, said the government team would meet early next week to discuss the ceasefire and potentially restarting peace talks.