The Pakistani Taliban on Monday rejected an offer to swap their guns for cricket bats and play a match for peace, saying the sport was responsible for turning youth away from jihad. The militant group were responding to a call made earlier in the day by Interior Minister who offered to host a match with the militants to revive stalled peace talks in comments which provoked derision on social media.
With talks on a sticky wicket, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said Monday that cricket could offer hope. "I have information that the Taliban keep an interest in cricket. So if this message can go through to them, we can have a cricket match with them which can have a better result," he told reporters in Islamabad following an exhibition game.
"The Taliban follow the Pakistan cricket team with keen interest so this can be a platform." But speaking to AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location, Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said his group would refuse to play ball. "These secular people want to distance our youth from jihad and Islamic teachings through cricket. We are strongly against cricket and dislike it," he said.
"We are ready to open the deadlock in peace talks created by the government. The government is not sincere in peace talks, but Taliban are ready for it." Reaction to the minister's suggestion that the Taliban could be tempted into talks through cricket was also overwhelmingly negative on Twitter, which is used mainly by the country's English-speaking elite. In a reference to bloody toll inflicted by the Taliban on Pakistan's forces over the years, one user called @MidhatZ, said: "Cricket on a red pitch and may be they could bowl with our soldiers heads?" Another user, @kursed, termed the minister a "bloody lunatic" and said "he should invite the families of those beheaded" by the Taliban to the match. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is a die-hard fan. And former cricketer Imran Khan now leads Pakistan's third largest political party. Cricket diplomacy has helped thaw ties between Pakistan and rival India in the past, with a visit by military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq to Jaipur in 1987 to watch a Test match seen as key in cooling raised tensions.
BR reporter adds: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday said that Pakistan is a peace-loving country and any option can be used to bring normalcy/peace in the country. Talking to media persons, the Minister said this after playing a few shots during an exhibition match between Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) XI and Commonwealth XI at Saidpur Cricket Ground, adding that intelligence agencies‚ armed forces and the government will not rest till restoration of complete peace.
Nisar said that some anti-state elements want to marginalize Pakistani cricket, but the present government will evolve a strategy to protect the game. Cricket is the game of peace‚ brotherhood and harmony and playing politics using the platform of cricket will only damage the game, he said. Cricket stars Umer Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanvir, Abdul Qadir, Azhar Ali, Sarfraz Nawaz, Intikhab Alam, Ejaz Ahmed and diplomats played in both the teams. Commonwealth team was led by Australian High Commissioner Peter Hewyard.