Drone assassination of Waliur Rehman sabotaged dialogue process: JUI-S chief

Pakistan must prove to the Taliban that it was not complicit in this attack, says JUI-S chief Maulana Samiul Haq.

KARACHI: Hours after the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) announced its decision to call off a dialogue process, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Samiul Haq (JUI-S) chief Maulana Samiul Haq said on Thursday that the killing of TTP Deputy Chief Waliur Rehman had sabotaged the peace process between the militants and the Pakistani government.

Haq, in a telephonic interview on Express News, stated that, “Whenever peace talks are proposed, America sabotages the process.”

TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan confirmed on Thursday that their second-in-command Rehman was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan on Wednesday, along with six other people. This was the second major blow to the militant organisation after the killing of its chief Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone strike in 2009.

The JUI-S leader further said that Pakistan must prove to the Taliban that it was not complicit in the killing of Rehman. “The first priority for Pakistan should be to launch an investigation into this incident. And Pakistan must prove that it was not complicit in this attack.”

He alleged that no facets of the Pakistani government and establishment have given this incidence the importance and the condemnation it deserves.

Haq expressed that while this was a major loss for the TTP, it was also a loss for all of Pakistan.

“Our entire country is burning in this [TTP] fire.”

The TTP announced earlier on Thursday that it has rescinded its dialogue offer to the incoming government.

TTP spokesperson Ehsan vowed that the organisation would take revenge for the killing of its deputy chief.