Imran Khan open to army operations if Taliban talks fail
- October 3, 2013, 7:38 pm
- World News
- 119 Views
LONDON, Oct 3 (Online): Imran Khan will reluctantly support military operations against the Pakistani Taliban if in two months it is clear his highly controversial strategy of negotiating with militant groups has failed, the former cricketer has said for the first time.
The politician has been ferociously criticised in recent weeks for pressing the case for peace talks at a time when scores of civilians have been killed in bomb attacks. But speaking to the Guardian, Khan insisted the country would soon know whether his strategy would succeed.
"By the mid or end of November we will know if this isn't going to work," he said during an interview at his hilltop estate on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad.
"It could be just a complete deadlock, a collapse, with [the Taliban] insisting on demands that we cannot meet. I reckon you will know in two months."
His critics and the senior ranks of the military have long argued the country needs to crack down on militants and launch an operation to eradicate their havens in north Waziristan, a deeply troubled part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) that is home to wide range of Islamist extremist groups.
Khan said if it became clear it was not going to work then he would reluctantly go along with an operation in north Waziristan. He said: "I am anti-war. I do not believe in military solutions. But in end if we are left with no option I will go along with it."
Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's army chief, has pushed the
