PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief and member of the Taliban talks committee Prof Mohammad Ibrahim has condemned the shelling in Khyber Agency and North Waziristan and described it as an action against innocent citizens.

In a statement issued by the JI here on Thursday, he said that the air strikes would further complicate the situation, adding that the ultimate sufferers would be the innocent people because random firing and shelling could never prove useful for restoration of peace.

Prof Ibrahim said that military operation was no solution to the problems because thousands of innocent people had become prey to the operations during past 10 years and if the government did not stop the action the casualties might go up.

He said that the deadlock in negotiations was not due to the Taliban committee, as the government itself had unilaterally stopped the process. He said that negotiations could succeed only with complete ceasefire from both the sides.

“We were waiting for response of the government committee, but it failed to respond positively despite our contact. He said that the government committee’s response refusing to meet Taliban committee was very irresponsible and childish.

Prof Ibrahim said that the government committee also took the Taliban committee members as Taliban and avoided meeting it. He said that they were not Taliban, but making efforts for restoration of peace.

He said that the government committee had created the deadlock and now it would contact them for resumption of talks. “The Taliban committee will not make any contact for the purpose because it has fulfilled its responsibilities,” he said.

Describing the government’s demands against the custodial killings of security personnel as legitimate, he asked the government to assure Taliban that there would be no extrajudicial killing.

Referring to a statement of Federal Minister for Information Pervez Rasheed, the JI leader said that the religion did not allow anyone to slit throats, but Islam also forbade killing of people through violence and throwing of bodies in gunnysacks on roads.