Afghan President Hamid Karzai has criticised the "unsuitable" timing of the US killing of Tehreek-e-Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and expressed hope it will not derail regional peace efforts.
Karzai told a visiting US Congress delegation that the drone strike "took place at an unsuitable time but he hoped as a result the peace process is not harmed," his office said in a statement released late Sunday.
The US action against Mehsud also angered the Pakistani government, with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar accusing Washington of "scuttling" peace moves.
Karzai has been seeking to open peace talks with the Afghan Taliban to end 12 years of war, but militants have refused to negotiate with the president's appointees, dismissing him as a puppet of Washington.
The Pakistan government has also been exploring peace moves with TTP, who are separate but linked to the Afghan group.
Karzai, who recently returned from talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in London, said fraught relations between Kabul and Islamabad had improved.
"The president said the meeting was one of the best with the Pakistani side and said he hoped that the attack the other day on the leader of the Pakistani Taliban was not harming the peace process in Pakistan and Afghanistan," his statement said.
The opening of a Taliban office in Qatar in June was meant to lead to talks, but instead it enraged Karzai after it was styled as an embassy for a government-in-exile.
Afghan officials have said that Afghanistan expects Pakistan to stop militants crossing the border to launch attacks in the run-up to the April presidential elections for Karzai's successor.
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Next time before taking aim at some other high ranking terrorist, the US of A will ask for permission from this "wisest man" in the Af-Pak!
This the same Karsai who was caught red handed trying to negotiate a deal with Meshud so the Taliban could use Afghanistan as base to attack Pakistan - no wonder he is upset.
This the same Karsai who was caught red handed trying to do a sanctuary deal with the Taliban?
To all mullahs and taliban khan supporters. Explain this to me; Allah has fixed the time we are going to die so why are you all saying that the USA chose the time to kill this terrorist. Was this not predestined. Jahils.
Hakimullah was an angel of peace and was ready to negotiate. He was ready to drop his weapons and take up farming. He had plans to sell kabuli pistachios.
@bilal: Why don't Taliban realize that they also killed a general after the proposal for negotiations, but that did not derail the entire process. So why a US intervention can derail the process. They must be able to show some maturity.
@whitesky: why are we not standing at one stance. how you want to bring peace in Pakistan? do you want to bring peace by dialogues or war?
@bilal: Shame on Taliban/ TTP on derailing Pakistan's economy and security of common men.
US always searches for the exact and accurate time of killing the Taliban's leaders and hit the nail on the head on given opportunity so that peace process could be derailed and later US says that peace talks' process should continue.This is US old habit and old habits go hard and US has proven it true.....
shame on US for derailing the peace efforts