PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said the Taliban have themselves closed all channels for negotiations and an operation against such elements is inevitable.

“Every disease has to be cured through medication, but if it is incurable then it requires surgery,” he said while talking to journalists here on Thursday after his return from Europe.

Condemning the killing of students and teachers in a terrorist attack on the Army Public School, Maulana Fazl expressed solidarity with the victims’ families and offered prayers for the departed souls.

He said terrorism was an international issue and countries in the region should evolve a joint mechanism for the safety of coming generations.

“Taliban have closed all channels and time has come to use the last option,” he said, adding that the government had wasted chances of restoring lasting peace in the country. Ill-planed policies of successive governments have disappointed the nation, he said.

The JUI-F chief said he would meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and urge him to take serious measures for tackling the issue of terrorism. The government should show seriousness and take practical steps.

He said the JUI-F had nominated Minister for Housing Mohammad Akram Durrani to represent the party in the committee set up to work out a national action plan for countering terrorism.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014