Rehman Malik says Taliban’s must give up arms in order to have any negotiations

Rehman Malik says Taliban’s must give up arms in order to have any negotiations

The Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, has revealed Pakistan is ready to have peace talks with Taliban’s, on a condition that they lay down their arms first.

Malik last Tuesday on October 18, 2011 told the media that if Taliban wants to negotiate with having guns in their hands that will not happen.

“The minimum agenda is that they give up arms and come forward and then there will be talks. But if they think they will keep Kalashnikovs in their hands and also hold talks, that will not happen,” he told reporters.

Pakistan army is already having a major military operation going on in Waziristan still Malik insisted a similar operation will be launched in the tribal areas, if the Talibans will not agree for the peace talks.

“If negotiations fail to work, the government will launch military operations in the tribal areas,” he added.

This approach, which is currently being applied, is exactly the same which was applied back in 2009 in Swat, as the government at that time also offered a peace deal to the Taliban community but then was forced to launch a military operation after the Taliban refused to lay down their weapons.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani earlier this year also had confirmed that the government is ready to have negotiations with the Taliban, including the Haqqani network.

In the end Malik admitted Pakistani government has received numerous threats from the strongholds of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP), who are on a constant war against Pakistani government and were involved in the 2007 bombing across the country, yet he made it very clear that the government will never have any negotiations without them laying down their weapons.

“The government has received messages from extremist elements,” however, dialogues would start when they disarm themselves.”

Malik upon his arrival at the Quetta airport also commented on the damage that has been done by the Afghanistan’s militia to a military check-post in Chaman. He remarked he is visiting Baluchistan on Gilani’s instructions and during his visit he will take a notice of everything.

“Issues of pilgrims travel to Iran, sectarianism, border surveillance and other law and order related matters would be reviewed during my Quetta visit,” the Interior Minister said.

Posted by Imran Shaukat Khan on Oct 20 2011. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry