Imran says Taliban are terrorists, he doesn’t back them ‘Zardari wants to please West’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan made it clear that it was absolute nonsense to think that he supported extremism.

During a candid interview with Al-Jazeera, the former Pakistani cricketer seemed confident when he declared the Taliban a terrorist group.

Answering a question raised by the presenter, the PTI head said, “Yes, they are (a terrorist group). Anyone who kills innocent people is a terrorist.”

Imran Khan has always been labelled as a Taliban apologist back home and has been criticised for allegedly defending the Pakistani Taliban globally and particularly within Pakistan.

When asked about his alleged connections with them and whether he backed the group or not, Imran said, “This is absolute nonsense. It’s just not true. All you have to do is to look at my statements for the past 10 years.”

“Must Read KP government issued funds for Haqqania seminary without asking me,” said Imran.

Despite all his repeated clarifications and explanations, Imran received harsh political bashing when he recently confessed to have allocated a budget of Rs300 million for Darul Uloom Haqqania, a religious seminary infamous for educating the Taliban fighters. He said the seminary agreed to implement reforms in return for the allocated sum for the religious seminary.

In the interview, Imran also responded to accusations levelled by former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari that the very donation was evidence that he supported extremism. “This is totally out of context,” Imran said, explaining that the purpose of the funding from his party was to get the madrassa system into the mainstream. He said, “If it were a university for jihad, it should have been shut down by previous governments in Pakistan.”

The PTI chairman said Zardari’s comments were like so many of the Muslim corrupt rulers, adding ex-rulers was trying to win the Western support by saying how liberal they were and how anti-Taliban they were.