The Pakistan government on Wednesday called itself a “custodian” of Taliban leaders and accepted that Islamabad provided shelter and education to the Taliban insurgents in its country. On a TV show, Pakistan interior minister Sheikh Rashid has openly accepted that Imran Khan-led Pakistan government has done everything for Taliban leaders, who are back in power in Afghanistan after 20 years.
“We are custodian of Taliban leaders. We have taken care of them for long. They got shelter, education and home in Pakistan. We have done everything for them,” Rashid said while speaking on Hum News programme ‘Breaking Point with Malick’.
Earlier, CNN-News18 had confirmed the Pakistan ISI’s heavy involvement in the deliberations between the Taliban and the Pakistan government. Exclusive photos accessed by CNN-News18 showed ISI Chief Hameed Faiz meeting top Taliban leaders in Kandahar.
CNN-News18 had previously reported that Pakistan is set to play a major role in the formation of a new government in Kabul.
Hameed Faiz, with Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and other leaders, was seen carrying out Namaz prayers in Kandahar, before Baradar’s departure to Kabul on Saturday.
Before that, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said that Pakistan is determined to play a “positive role” in Afghanistan as he appealed to the Taliban insurgents and former rulers of the war-ravaged country to formulate an all-inclusive political government after mutual consultations. Our envoy in Afghanistan is also in touch with different Afghan personalities, he had said in a statement.
Moreover, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had once called Taliban “normal civilians”, not military outfits, and asked how the country is supposed to hunt them down when it has three million Afghan refugees at the border.
In an interview with PBS NewsHour, Khan stressed that Pakistan hosts three million Afghan refugees of which the majority are Pashtuns, the same ethnic group as the Taliban fighters. “Now, there are camps of 500,000 people; there are camps of 100,000 people. And Taliban are not some military outfits, they are normal civilians. And if there are some civilians in these camps, how is Pakistan supposed to hunt these people down? How can you call them sanctuaries?” he had argued.
When asked about alleged Taliban safe havens in Pakistan, the Prime Minister responded: “Where are these safe-havens? There are three million refugees in Pakistan who are the same ethnic group as the Taliban…”
The Taliban insurgents swept Kabul on August 15 after the US-backed Afghan government collapsed and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, bringing an unprecedented end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform the war-ravaged nation.
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