A Pakistani minister admitted late Monday that the killing of Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud in a drone strike has caused serious tension between Pakistan and the United States.
In a policy statement in the National Assembly following the killing of Mehsud, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the killing destroyed the government's plan to initiate peace talks with the Taliban militants.
The Taliban, who have refused to talk to the government after the death of their leader, have now started issuing threats of revenge.
Khan told the lower house of the parliament that the Taliban have ruled out possibility of the talks but the government intends to bring the process on track.
Regretting that the United Stated does not care of the concerns of others, he said Pakistan will not accept dictations from Washington.
"We will try to revive the peace process from where it has been broken," the minister said.
The Taliban have some problems to elect their new leader and the talks would be impossible unless they agreed on the new leader, he added.
Explaining the difficulties in holding dialogue with the Taliban, he told the lawmakers the government had exchanged messages with the Taliban for two weeks after a parliamentary conference in early September which had unanimously decided to hold talks with the Taliban to end bloodshed.
However, the talks were delayed due to a Taliban attack which killed a major general that was followed by three major attacks over the past two months including one on a church that killed nearly 80 Christian worshippers.
Nisar commended all the political parties for uniting to pursue peace talks, and showing patience despite the ongoing attacks.
He also thanked the army which "went the extra mile" to protect the peace dialogue despite the developing grave security situation. He said the government's armed forces and the Taliban will not be responsible if the US again sabotages the peace process.
The minister also referred to the major challenge to identify the main group for the possible dialogue as nearly 70 militant groups currently operate in the country including 37 groups under the Taliban's umbrella.
He said that the groups are not under the discipline of the central organization and some even want separate talks with the government.
"Despite many splinter groups, we decided to hold talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan as the Taliban would accuse us of dividing the group if we opt for talks with any other outfit," he said.
Speaking in the debate, senior political leader Imran Khan said that Pakistan suffered a lot due to joining the so-called war on terror under the United States. He urged the government to quit the international coalition as "we have lost up to 50,000 people and 100 billion dollars."
He announced that his party's government in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province will close the NATO supply line after Nov. 20.
簡明釋義：巴基斯坦部長周一晚承認，因美國使用無人機殺害塔利班首領哈基穆拉馬哈囌德已經使得巴基斯坦和美國之間的侷勢埳入僵侷。馬哈囌德殺害後，在國民議會在一份政策中聲明，“美國的殺戮破壞巴政府的原定開始與塔利班武裝和談的計劃。”
