Former prime minister Imran Khan has said that his government was in talks with Kabul to get Pakistani Taliban, also known as TTP, resettled in Pakistan after they were asked by Afghan Taliban to go back.

“What happened was that after a Kabul fell to the Taliban last August the the Pakistan Taliban were asked by the Afghan Taliban to go back into Pakistan and … that was a great time for us … my government was already negotiating with them so that we would do a resettlement of these people because they were about 40 000 people which were moving into Pakistan amongst them about five to ten thousand fighters but their families too “ he said.

The PTI chairman made these remarks in a virtual session with Center for Islam and Global Affairs, where he answered questions on a range of different topics including the Muslim world and religion’s place in politics.

However, his most important remarks came when asked about the latest wave of terrorism in Pakistan.

Imran Khans said that after his government went, “the new government took the eye of the ball,” Khan said. “The new setup and the military establishment did not pay enough attention to what was happening.”

He said that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan were made of Pashtuns living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the erstwhile tribal areas that are now part of Pakistan. He also added that their connection with the Afghan Taliban was ‘vague’ at best.

He said that after the US left Afghanistan, the Pakistani Taliban were told by the Afghan government to go back to Pakistan.

He said that it was the failure of the new government to pursue this settlement that led to the latest wave of terrorism.

“This new wave of terror needs to be dealt with before it goes out of hand,” he said.