THATTA - PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday slammed the Taliban for trying to drag the country back to the ‘Stone Age’.
Addressing a gathering during the closing ceremony of a two-week Sindh cultural festival, Bilawal Bhutto also urged the country to rise up against the threats.
“The Taliban want to impose the law of terror in the country, but I want to tell them, if you have to live in Pakistan you will have to follow its constitution,” he said.
“We don’t accept the law of terrorists,” he added. “Some people are trying to bring back the Stone-Age era in the country in the name of Islam.”
In his typical aggressive tone, Bilawal warned Taliban to restrain from crossing the limits and do not try to teach their Islam to others as he was the son of ‘Babul Islam’. “We know the teachings of Islam more than Taliban.”
“Dialogue is always an option but we have to have a position of strength. How do you talk from a position of weakness? You have to beat them on the battlefield. They are fighting us. It’s not only confined to North Waziristan. They are attacking us in Karachi. We would like to eradicate the Taliban from Pakistan,” said Bilawal.
He said that everybody should just admit that TTP is an enemy and driven by lust for blood. “Taliban have no interest in talks or peace,” Bilawal said, adding it was surprising that some parties still insisted on holding talks with such deadly enemies.
“Every drop of blood being sacrificed by the public and the nation’s brave armed forces was creating unity and consensus that beasts can never be lured through roses and they need to be responded to in the same language,” he added.
The young PPP leader sympathised with the bereaved families who had lost their beloved ones at the hands of these terrorists, saying that he personally shared their grief as he himself lost his mother in the nation’s war for survival.
The PPP chairman stressed the need for launching an operation against the terrorists as, he said, the issued could not be resolved through dialogue.
He said Islam also teaches them to help the humanity, not to kill others or blow up oneself for self-satisfaction.
He warned the Taliban that if the nation stood up against these terrorists they could not find a place even to escape.
The start of 2014 has seen a surge in militant violence with more than 130 people killed. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government has been under fire from political opponents for failing to mount a strong response to the upsurge in attacks.
The government has for months said it favoured talks with the Taliban but 25-year-old Bilawal has spoken in favour of military action against them.
Former premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 by the Pakistani Taleban afterk leaving a campaign rally of her Pakistan People’s Party.
Her husband and Bilawal’s father Asif Ali Zardari was president from 2008-2013.
The Taliban’s demands include the nationwide imposition of sharia law and an end to US drone strikes, conditions the government and army are unlikely to be able to meet.