Taleban are just illiterate religious beggars----according to Imran Khan

[Toramana]

Here is an old interview by Imran Khan to Newsweek. In the interview, he has called Taleban illiterate religious beggars, which shows what image he has of Taleban and Pashtuns in general.

So what do you advocate?
Look, it's a mess. It was a mistake to turn the Taliban against you. They were just illiterate religious beggars. Those people, the more you kill them, the more they're going to come after you. Now you have to separate the Pashtuns from Al Qaeda and start negotiations. It will be a slow process, but they are very good at negotiation. That's the route to go.

But how do you persuade Pashtuns to allow the United States to go after Al Qaeda?

Pay them. For a fraction of the money spent on the war, they might have delivered Osama bin Laden. A little bit of money would have given them a stake in peace.

Imran Khan: Better A ‘Bad Democrat’

http://www.newsweek.com/2008/02/02/i...-democrat.html

[ScimitarXEdge]

without sounding like I favor anything to do with Imran Khan, the truth is the truth no matter where it comes from.

what is untrue in what he's said?

The Taliban are scholarly and endowed with rational insight and genuine Islamic understanding? Definitely not.

And yes during the 2001 invasion many tribes in Eastern Afghanistan (Jabar Khail to name one) were given bags of money to go after the Taliban in Nangarhar. Now I don't agree with the old British Raj idioms "you can buy a Pathan"; but these things aren't based on myths, there are nuimerous historical and recent examples.

[emkhan]

Toramana loves to twist everything in his favour but he fails every time. I think Toramana should step down from this post of copying and pasting

[gadoonwal]

Toramana loves to twist everything in his favour but he fails every time. I think Toramana should step down from this post of copying and pasting

he is paid for this bs.chaplos is his job.He can continue up on that.

[Toramana]

without sounding like I favor anything to do with Imran Khan, the truth is the truth no matter where it comes from.

what is untrue in what he's said?

The Taliban are scholarly and endowed with rational insight and genuine Islamic understanding? Definitely not.

And yes during the 2001 invasion many tribes in Eastern Afghanistan (Jabar Khail to name one) were given bags of money to go after the Taliban in Nangarhar. Now I don't agree with the old British Raj idioms "you can buy a Pathan"; but these things aren't based on myths, there are nuimerous historical and recent examples.

The point isn't whether what he says about Taleban is true or not ---It is, calling Taleban religious bigots may be understandable but labeling them beggars indicates the contempt wealthy Punjabi elite have for Taleban (and in general for Pashtuns) even when they are their asset.

The other thing is, back home he glorifies Taleban to be something completely holy and innocent. This is typical style of Pakistani political and military elite to paint others to the world's centers of power as savage monsters that can be controlled only if Pakistan (read Punjab) is given money, weapons, and the political support to go ahead. They create a problem and then present themselves to be a solution to the problem (mercenary or rentier approach)...

Moreover, now a days, Imran Khan is having frequent meetings with the ISI chief. Not able to shape an MMA like alliance, the Pakistani establishment is working on Imran Khan (Taleb Khan) believing he would also be acceptable to foreign powers. Imran Khan has also tried to give impression to the West that he is the kind of political machoman to do the job.

[emkhan]

he is paid for this bs.chaplos is his job.He can continue up on that.

Yes brother, it is abvious now that he is a paid employee of some anti Pashtun and anti muslims organisation.

[Toramana]

he is paid for this bs.chaplos is his job.He can continue up on that.

You defintely have some loose nuts up there...

[gadoonwal]

You defintely have some loose nuts up there...

at least i am not beating the same drums as you do everywhere.
get a life and be brave to face the reality of this so called isi=cia=blackwater=TTp bs.

[Bengal_Tiger]

I respect Imran Khan to a degree and think he is a sincere person, but of course politics is a dirty art so no one is perfect.

He was condemning the operations in Waziristan before 2007 (the year when the current Pakistan crisis started, the lawyers movement and the major TTP escalation in suicide bombings culminating in the death of Benazir) at a time when everything else in the rest of Pakistan was "hunky dory" or "peach dandy" (English phrase for our many guest readers which mean everything was fine and wonderful).

However, yes he is being promoted and the ISI-GHQ have a soft spot for him. So there is something else going on, Toramana is partly right about that.

[ScimitarXEdge]

The point isn't whether what he says about Taleban is true or not ---It is, calling Taleban religious bigots may be understandable but labeling them beggars indicates the contempt wealthy Punjabi elite have for Taleban (and in general for Pashtuns) even when they are their asset.

The other thing is, back home he glorifies Taleban to be something completely holy and innocent. This is typical style of Pakistani political and military elite to paint others to the world's centers of power as savage monsters that can be controlled only if Pakistan (read Punjab) is given money, weapons, and the political support to go ahead. They create a problem and then present themselves to be a solution to the problem (mercenary or rentier approach)...

Moreover, now a days, Imran Khan is having frequent meetings with the ISI chief. Not able to shape an MMA like alliance, the Pakistani establishment is working on Imran Khan (Taleb Khan) believing he would also be acceptable to foreign powers. Imran Khan has also tried to give impression to the West that he is the kind of political machoman to do the job.

Well one thing we can agree on is that Imran Khan is just a jingostic charlatan who just acts and poses in front of the camera. he's a text book narcissist and everyone plays off of that.

But I think you're reading too deeply into the comments themselves as some sort of well crafted psy-ops against Pashtuns. Even Khushal Khan Khattak had more loathesome words to say about other Pashtuns, in a time when the Mughals were trampling the lands. Although the context is different, the ideas are essentially reflective of what is going on in the society.

I 100% agree, The Taliban, in so much as their leadership (I don't criticize conscripts or rank and file people on the same scale; I feel that they're generally sincere but are having their sincerity manipulated by both poles); are anything but innocent, and they have proven that not only with the horrendous things they did in the 90's but also teaching young men to engage in suicide bombings and foolish things like vigilante justice. The fact that Imran Khan is trying to exonerate them as some type of heroic movement is dishonest and detrimental, but similarly using a scapegoat of the Taliban to get militarily entrenched to subjugate the region is also a detriment> the reason they use drones instead of a Elite Special OPS is because

in their equation "farangay lives > Pashtun/Afghan/Muslim lives" because if they were really sincere about getting Taliban leadership they could have done that using Special Ops teams.

So Imran Khan's clearly not thinking for Pashtuns; but at the same time he's not as calculated as you think he is.