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Taliban seek govt apology over ‘civilian’ killings in drone hits

* Spokesman offers conditional support to Pakistan against India, calls statements by other Taliban leaders ‘irresponsible’

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: Maulvi Nazir, the Taliban chief in Ahmedzai Wazir areas of South Waziristan Agency, on Monday asked the government to apologise for killing of civilians and mujahideen by drones attacks carried out by the United States-led coalition.

Maulvi Nazir’s spokesman said the Taliban would support the Pakistan government to defend the country against an invasion by India if it ‘publicly apologises and pulls out’ from the US-led coalition fighting the war on terror.

“If Pakistan tenders an apology over the killing of mujahideen and pulls out from the US-led coalition, we will defend the country against any Indian aggression,” the spokesman read out Nazir’s statement on telephone. Nazir’s statement is the first since he survived an October 31 US missile attack near Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan.

He said, “Should we defend a force which killed hundreds of innocent mujahideen, or helped send them to Cuba, or earned dollars in return for our blood, or which is still an ally of the US?”

“The US has not inflicted damage on us as much as Pakistan has,” he said, holding Pakistan responsible for ‘helping’ the US target the Taliban through unmanned spy planes.

He said if Pakistan ‘does not render an apology’ over its anti-Taliban policy, “we will regard Pakistan as an enemy alongside India and the US”.

Nazir, who accepted the army’s help for the popular drive against Uzbek Al Qaeda fighters in March 2007, called the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza as ‘attack on Waziristan’ adding that with “the US defeat, Israel will also vanish from the world map”.

He also called all statements by other Taliban leaders pledging support against ‘Indian adventurism’ irresponsible.

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