PESHAWAR, Sept 22: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan on Sunday said that twin suicide blasts at Peshawar church were perpetrated to sabotage the proposed talks with Taliban to end militancy in the country.

“Whenever such peace efforts are initiated, drone and terror attacks also escalate apparently to sabotage the peace overtures,” he observed.

The PTI chairman, who rushed to Peshawar after the attack at All Saints Church here, condemned the blasts and said the perpetrators couldn’t be called human beings.

Mr Khan also went to the Lady Reading Hospital where he met with blast victims and enquired after their health. He was accompanied by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, provincial ministers and members of the provincial assembly.

Mr Khan said attack on the church and killing of innocent people, including women and children, was an inhuman act which needed to be condemned in strongest words.

He said it was 210th terror strike in Peshawar in the last five years. “The church attack, which is worst than the Meena Bazaar explosion in 2009, is the result of government’s wrong policy of fighting the US war on terror,” he said.

He said that the resolution adopted in the all party conference should be implemented to eradicate militancy.

The only way to establish peace in the country was to come out of the America’s war, he said, adding that the PTI had long been campaigning for dialogue with Taliban to seek a durable solution to the endless spate of violence.

He said his party would make efforts to get rid of militancy and pave way for progress and development of the province.

The PTI chairman said that the previous government was mostly to blame for the prevailing law and order situation in the province.

He said that it was shameful to politicise the gruesome attack which had shattered the nation. The provocation caused by a politician and subsequent ransacking of hospital by enraged people was shameful act, he said, adding that the PTI-led ruling coalition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa couldn’t be blamed for the mess by those who ruled the province for five years.

On the occasion, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak announced special package for the victims of the attacks. He said that the victims would be treated free of cost and that his government stood by the side of Christians in these trying times.