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Friday, November 08, 2013
Hectic efforts were made for Taliban peace talks: NisarStaff Report
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Thursday informed the Senate that hectic efforts were made to initiate peace talks with Taliban. He rejected the impression that peace negotiations were just a drama.
“We held several meetings with several fractions of Taliban, which are about 37,” Nisar told the Senate, adding that according to other sources there are 50 groups. He said this is a critical issue which has aggravated over the last 13 years. “After hard efforts we had reached the final stage to some extent but the drone attack totally destroyed it.” The interior minister said several unfortunate incidents had occurred in the meantime, like killing of top army officials along with troops, attack on a church.
He said going forward with peace talks in such a situation was too difficult. “The Pakistani forces and politicians assured full support for peace negotiations with Taliban, but some forces do not accept these peace efforts.” The interior minister said that after the recent drone attack he had told the US ambassador to Pakistan directly that the US must take Pakistan’s stance seriously, and it will be responsible if peace negotiations with Taliban derailed.
Nisar claimed that these statements are on record. “No other political party in the past took such strong line with the US envoy or any other,” the minister claimed. The minister said that he had worked for seven weeks over peace negotiations with the Taliban and had involved several ulema during this period. Speaking about the Karachi operation, he said Sindh chief minister was taken into confidence and all political parties were consulted before the operation.
“Around 9,000 criminals have been arrested so far in the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi,” Nisar said. Replying to a question during the question-hour, he assured the House that the sole objective of the operation was to restore peace in Karachi and it would not be used as a tool against any political party or group. He said the operation was launched after evolving consensus of all political parties.
He said law enforcement agencies were vigorously chasing those criminal elements who had fled to other parts of the country and abroad. Some such absconders were arrested from Murree, Lahore and interior Sindh and other parts of the country, he added. The minister said some of the arrested criminals had revealed their affiliation with political parties, however, none of the political party had contacted the authorities.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk