Imran accuses Washington of derailing peace talks
PTI leader criticises timing of attack on Hakimullah Mehsud
bani gala — Cricketer-turnedpolitician Imran Khan accused the United States on Friday of deliberately destroying any chance of meaningful peace talks with the Pakistani Taleban by killing the insurgency’s leader in a drone strike a week ago.
The Taleban have since rejected talks with the government and threatened a wave of revenge attacks for the death of their chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, on November 1.
Khan, a popular opposition politician in the country, said in an interview that the United States had scuppered negotiations at a time when the militants seemed to have become more open to them.
“If there was a chance of peace talks, we should have grabbed it,” he said at his sprawling estate outside Islamabad ringed by hills and neatly maintained lawns.
“The Americans basically could have taken out Hakimullah whenever they wanted. I think the timing was to sabotage the peace process.
“The Americans think that if there is fighting going on here ... in our tribal belt, there is less chance of insurgents going over to the other side (Afghanistan) to fight the Americans at a time when they are withdrawing.” Washington has long put pressure on Pakistan to do more to tackle the insurgency but the new government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, elected in May, wants to find a negotiated solution to years of violence.
Khan said missiles fired by unmanned US aircraft in North Waziristan have only fuelled antiAmerican sentiment.
He agrees with Sharif on the need for peace talks with the Pakistan Taleban, an Al Qaeda-linked group fighting to topple the government.
Khan, whose political party is now in charge of the volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province bordering Afghanistan, has threatened to cut Nato supply lines through his region from November 20 if US drone strikes do not end.
Blocking Nato trucks at KP bor- der checkpoints could disrupt the operations of US-led forces in Afghanistan but any decision to close supply routes through Pakistan would have to come from the federal government in Islamabad.
“They (the Taleban) think ... we are the slaves of America, that the Pakistan government is taking money from the .. and fighting its (America’s) war and killing its own people,” Khan said.
“Therefore they have declared jihad against the Pakistan army and Pakistani security forces. The dialogue should (take place) to take that narrative away.”
The Taleban want to oust the government and impose their rule in the nuclear-armed nation. Opponents of talks, including many in the army, believe the insurgency can only be defeated by force.
But Khan disagrees: “We are bogged down in guerrilla warfare just as the British were bogged down for 80 years, in Waziristan, in the tribal areas, and they never succeeded,” he said in reference to British military failures in the 19th century.
“We are not going to succeed because they (Taleban) are masters of guerrilla warfare.” —