Topic: Militants Open Door For Talks

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
February 25, 2008
Taliban-style militants battling government forces in northwest Pakistan said Sunday they want dialogue with the winners of parliamentary elections and urged the new leadership to abandon President Pervez Musharraf's war on terror. Meanwhile, the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, which will lead the new government, called for an end to military operations against autonomy-minded insurgents in another restive area--the southwestern province of Baluchistan along the border with Afghanistan, where the U.S.-backed Afghan government believes the Taliban leadership may be hiding. And U.S. Sens. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) urged a "graceful exit" from power for the unpopular Musharraf, but stopped short of supporting efforts to remove him from office.