TTP attack on Army a huge setback for peace talks: Imran Khan

Says everyone wants peace but all possibilities need to be considered.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said on Monday that the recent attack of Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) on the Pakistan Army could prove to be a setback for the peace talks process.

Roadside bomb attacks and a Taliban ambush on Sunday killed seven soldiers or policemen including two senior army officers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Talking to the media on Monday, he said that everyone wants peace but TTP showed extremism by carrying out the attack.

Condemning the attack, he said that he was saddened about the soldiers who lost their lives.

"For nine years we tried a strategy but that has only increased extremism. All parties agreed in the All Parties Conference (APC) that dialogue is the way forward," he said.

Asserting that all possibilities needed to be considered, he questioned, "what other choices do we have?"

"The situation that we are in right now," he added, "has no easy solution."

The All Parties Conference (APC) held on September 9 saw all major political parties deciding that dialogue was the way forward to counter the increasing terrorism in the country. Since then, the TTP have demanded that their prisoners be released and army be withdrawn from tribal areas before talks can be initiated.

Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani has said that Taliban should not be allowed to set the terms of the talk and has asserted that military has the will and the ability to take the fight to the militants.