Ex Pak MNA claims US contacted him again to broker talks with Taliban

Peshawar, Nov.4 : A former Pakistan Member of the National Assembly (MNA), Javed Ibrahim Paracha, who is known for having a good contact with the Taliban leadership, has said that the US has approached him once again to initiate talks with the outlawed group.

Paracha said senior officials of the US embassy had called him for his assistance to broker truce dialogue with the Afghan Taliban.

Referring to his meeting with the then top US Diplomats in 2005, Paracha said Washington had offered him huge money for mediating in talks with the Taliban.

"US officials had offered me 500,000 dollars in that meeting for mediating. I refused that offer and had asked US officials to first take permission from the government and corps commanders," The Daily Times quoted Paracha, as saying.

According to reports, during her visit to the quake-hit areas of Pakistan in 2005, the then US Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes had met Paracha and asked him to play a bridging role between the US and the Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan.

However, the US had vehemently denied the reports at that time.

Describing the reports as 'total fabrication', the US State Department said, "Karen never met Paracha. This report too is a fabrication of somebody's fertile imagination. She never met this politician, so she could not have asked him to do anything for the US."

--ANI