DHAKA: A top Pakistani minister on Monday offered to hold a cricket match with the Taliban as a way of reviving stalled talks on ending the militants’ bloody seven-year insurgency.

Pakistan’s government entered into a formal dialogue with the Taliban earlier this month, but the process faltered after the militants executed 23 kidnapped soldiers.

The military has retaliated with a series of air strikes in the tribal areas that border Afghanistan and are home to the Taliban’s top leadership, killing dozens.

But with talks on a sticky wicket, interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said cricket offered hope, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1856 HRS, FEB 24, 2014