New Delhi: India on Wednesday reacted sharply to the peace deal between the Pakistan government and the Taliban and warned the world that the hardline militia was "a terrorist organisation" and "a threat to humanity".
"The Taliban is a terrorist organisation. Taliban believes in nothing but destruction and violence," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters here.
NATO cautions Pak over truce with Taliban
He was commenting on the controversial deal between the Pakistan government and the Taliban in the Swat Valley, which is home to around three million of the estimated 20 million people who live in the North West Frontier Province.
Pakistan has sent a hardline cleric to the Swat Valley to negotiate with the Taliban. The cleric is pressing militants to give up their arms to honour a pact that imposes Islamic law and suspends a military offensive in Swat and nearby areas.
"The Taliban are a danger to humanity and civilisation," he stressed. India is concerned that the deal with the Taliban, widely seen as a concession to militants, will provide a safe haven to militants that can pose a threat to India's security.
Why Taliban is happy with the Pak govt
It's not just India, but the US and the NATO are also concerned with the Taliban deal and its repercussions on the rising violence in Afghanistan. US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said here Monday that the Taliban operating out of Swat region poses a "direct threat" to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The NATO shared these concerns. "We would all be concerned by a situation in which extremists would have safe haven. This region is suffering very badly from extremism and we would not want to see that get worse," a NATO spokesman said in Brussels.
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