Taliban: “Afghanistan can’t be controlled from outside,” says Imran
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, on Friday, said that Afghanistan cannot be “controlled from the outside” and announced that Islamabad will continue to support the war-torn neighbouring country, as he urged the Islamist militia Taliban to “fulfil the promises they have made”.
Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Heads of State (SCO-CHS) Summit in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, he highlighted the need to mobilize global support for immediate humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan which the Taliban recaptured last month, sparking worldwide concerns and the international financial squeeze on the war-torn country.
“We must remember that the Afghan government primarily depended on foreign aid”, he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.
Islamabad has a vital interest in a peaceful and stable Afghanistan and will continue to lend its support, Khan said, adding that Afghanistan could not be “controlled from the outside”.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, two weeks before the US-led forces’ complete troop withdrawal on August 31 after a costly two-decade-long war. This forced Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country to the UAE.
The Taliban insurgents stormed across Afghanistan and captured all major cities in a matter of days, as Afghan security forces, trained and equipped by the US and its allies, melted away quickly without firing a shot at many places.
Thousands of Afghan nationals and foreigners have since fled the country to escape the new Taliban regime and to seek asylum in different nations, including the US and many European nations, resulting in total chaos and deaths.
