Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has accused the United States of deliberately sabotaging the chances of establishing peace talks with the Taliban by killing their leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a drone strike last Friday.
The cricketer-turned-politician said that the U.S. had scuttled negotiations at a time when the militants seemed to have become more open to negotiations, Dawn News reports.
Commanders of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have rejected talks with the government and threatened a wave of revenge attacks after Mehsud's death in a U.S. air strike.
Slain Taliban leader Mehsud was likely open to ceasefire talks with the government, but his successor Mullah Fazlullah, whose men were behind the attack on schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai last year, has been one of the main vocal opponents of peace talks.