Taliban wanted to enter India after overrunning Pakistan: Malik

Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that had the Taliban militants overrun his country, their next targets would have been India and Bangladesh.

"India and Bangladesh would have been next if the Taliban had taken over Pakistan," Malik told reporters while
briefing them on the outcome of the meeting of SAARC Interior Ministers here on Saturday.

Pakistani Taliban last year warned that it would dispatch terrorists to fight India, once an Islamic state had been created in Pakistan.

"We want an Islamic state (in Pakistan). If we get that, then we will go to the borders and help fight the Indians," Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's slain chief Hakimullah Mehsud had warned in footage aired by Britain's Sky News channel in October last year.

At the SAARC briefing, Malik contended that Pakistan's actions against the Taliban had helped improve regional security.

Pakistan's actions against the Taliban will continue till they are eradicated, he added.

Under US pressure, Pakistan launched a military offensive in May last year against militants and pushed them out of the Taliban bastion of Swat.

The militants then conquered neighbouring districts, including one just 100 km northwest of Islamabad. The brazen Taliban advances set alarm bells ringing in many world capitals.

First Published: Jun 27, 2010 18:31 IST