Pak Taliban calls ceasefire in Swat

Pakistani Taliban fighters announced a ceasefire on Wednesday after months of clashes with security forces and suicide attacks across the northwest of the country.

Military spokesmen were not immediately available for comment but security officials in South Waziristan said there have been contacts with militants in tribal strongholds of the Pakistani Taliban.

"The government has shown leniency over the past four or five days," Maulvi Omar, a spokesman 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.