PESHAWAR, Dec 28: Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud said in a video released on Friday that his organisation could be open to talks with the government, but rejected the idea that his men should give up their guns before such negotiations.

Mehsud, who has a $5 million US government bounty on his head, said the militant group would consider negotiations with the government but only if it abandoned ties with Washington.

The tape emerged after a spate of high-profile attacks claimed by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in recent weeks, including an assault on Peshawar airport and the assassination of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s senior minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour.

“If Pakistan is serious about negotiations it will have to give up US slavery. We will then be ready for negotiations,” Mehsud said in the video. “It is quite ridiculous to ask us to give up arms before entering into negotiations.

“But if Pakistan decides to open talks while remaining US slaves the talks will not succeed because a slave can never take independent decisions.”

He accused Islamabad of reneging on peace deals in the past under US pressure, but did not elaborate.

The video, distributed to media organisations, is undated but also shows Mehsud’s deputy Waliur Rehman discussing the Saturday killing of provincial minister Bilour, which would suggest it was filmed in the past week.

US officials believed Mehsud had been killed in a drone strike in January 2010, but in May that year he appeared in a series of videos, claiming responsibility for an attempted car bombing in New York’s Times Square and vowing to attack major US cities.

Waliur Rehman, who also has a $5m US government price on his head, accused the Awami National Party of “selling the local people for American money”.

“Our jihad against them is going on and will continue, their workers will be targeted,” he said.

He denied recent reports suggesting a leadership struggle between him and Mehsud.

“We have no differences; there was propaganda in the media about a split in the TTP. We are one and united,” he said.

In the video, Mehsud sits cradling a rifle. “Waliur Rehman is sitting with me here and we will be toge-ther until death,” said Mehsud.

The Pakistani Taliban said in a letter released on Thursday that they wanted the government to rewrite the country’s laws and constitution to conform with Islamic law, break its alliance with the United States and stop interfering in the war in Afghanistan and focus on India instead.

“We are against the democratic system because it is un-Islamic,” Mehsud said. “Our war isn’t against any party. It is against the non-Islamic system and anyone who supports it.”

He said the Pakistani Taliban would follow the lead of the Afghan Taliban when it came to forming policy after most Nato troops withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014.

“We are Afghan Taliban and Afghan Taliban are us,” he said. “We are with them and Al Qaeda. We are even willing to get our heads cut off for Al Qaeda.”—Agencies