KARACHI: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Peoples Party, 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 cultural festival in his home province of Sindh, 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.”

“The terrorists should think of the time when the whole nation will stand against them,” he said in Makli, around 100 kilometres north of Karachi.

“We are Muslims and the terrorist groups should not try to teach us Islam.”

Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in the insurgency by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) since it began in 2007, according to an AFP tally.

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.

The Taliban's demands include the nationwide imposition of sharia law and an end to US drone strikes.

Former premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 by the Pakistani Taliban after leaving a campaign rally of her Pakistan People's Party.

Her husband and Bilawal's father Asif Ali Zardari was president from 2008-2013.