Taliban are a terrorist group, says Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has said he considers the Taliban a terrorist group, rubbishing allegations that he supports "extremism" in Pakistan.

"Yes they are [a terrorist group]. Anyone who kills innocent people are terrorists," he said in an interview with foreign news channel Al Jazeera.

The cricketer-turned-politician, whose party governs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has long supported negotiations with the Pakistani Taliban as an effective way to an end to the long-running insurgency.

But Khan rejects allegations that he supports extremism.

"This is absolute nonsense. It's just not true. All you have to do is look at my statements for the past ten years," he said in the interview responding to allegations that he 'supports' the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Khan also responded to accusations from former President Asif Ali Zardari, who last month accused the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government of "legitimising militancy and militant Taliban" by allocating Rs 300 million to Darul Uloom Haqqania, a privately-owned seminary notorious for its alleged links with the Taliban.

Zardari had said that the funds should have been spent on human development instead of "legitimising a private seminary known for promoting private jihad project".

"This is totally out of context," said Khan, explaining that the intentions of his party were "to get the madrassa system into the mainstream".

Khan said that "if it [the Haqqania seminary] was a university for jihad, it should have been shut down" by previous governments.

Khan said Zardari's statement was "like so many of the Muslim corrupt rulers, ex-rulers, trying to win Western support by saying how liberal they are and how anti-Taliban they are".