LAHORE: After Tehreek-i-Insaf, the Jamaat-i-Islami has also welcomed military operation against certain Taliban groups.

“Action against certain Taliban groups enjoying the backing of RAW and CIA will be in line with the nation’s sentiments,” party emir Syed Munawwar Hasan told the media after addressing a farmers’ convention here on Thursday.

Quoting military high-ups as claiming that certain Taliban groups had the backing of RAW and CIA, he said action against the groups having enemy patronage and the policy of dialogue with other Taliban groups would be in accordance with the nation’s aspirations. “This is a decisive moment for the nation and the country to decide that who are militants and who are Taliban.”

Saying the nation had full confidence in its military and political institutions, he asserted that any action against the militants would have the support of the whole nation.

He, however, called for immediate end to aerial strikes in North Waziristan, saying the operation was causing more damage to the civilian population than the militants.

Mr Hasan demanded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government set up camps for thousands of people fleeing their homes in North Waziristan to escape bombing.

He stressed upon the government and Taliban dialogue committees to convene their meetings and try to bring both the sides to negotiation table. The JI emir condemned MQM chief Altaf Husain’s call for military takeover and termed it undemocratic and unconstitutional.

He said the government should have taken serious note of such a ‘damaging’ statement.