Pakistan responsible for Taliban’s return in Afghanistan, says expert

Islamabad [Pakistan], August 17 (ANI): Afghanistan citizens are blaming Pakistan for the country’s current situation as it gave shelter to the Taliban when its citizens were fighting the terrorist group, said Fabien Baussart, the President of Center of Political and Foreign Affairs.

Baussart in Times of Israel wrote that the areas in northwestern Pakistan were used by the Taliban to rearrange and resurrect following the assault by the United States and allied forces in 2001. However, there have been angry reactions on social media blaming Pakistan and its spy agency Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) for the ongoing mess in Afghanistan.

“On Twitter, #sanctionPakistan trended soon after the Taliban announced victory. The hashtag was used 730,000 times and 37 per cent of the originated from Afghanistan,” he said. Baussart further said that even, first vice president of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh openly named Pakistan for oppressing the Afghan population through support to the Taliban.

“In my soil. With the people. For a cause and purpose. With a solid belief in righteousness. Opposing Pakistan backed oppression and brutal dictatorship is our legitimacy,” he said. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had also said that the Taliban are not some military outfits but normal civilians, “how the country is supposed to hunt them down when it has three million Afghan refugees at the border.”

According to Baussart, many Afghan officials and even international experts observed that the Taliban could not take over the country without help from Pakistan. Pakistan’s former president General Pervez Musharraf had accepted a few years ago that the ISI was responsible for the birth of the Taliban since the Afghanistan officials and largest ethnic group favoured India.

“Obviously we were looking for some groups to counter this Indian action against Pakistan. That is where the intelligence work comes in. Intelligence being in contact with Taliban groups. Definitely, they were in contact, and they should be,” Musharraf said. Notably, Pakistan’s support to the Taliban led to the birth of many terrorist outfits in Pakistan, which ultimately challenged the country’s leadership and carried out several terror attacks inside Pakistan.

The Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday and took control of the presidential palace. Taliban leaders have been discussing future government plans in Doha after gaining control of Kabul and seizing the presidential palace in Afghanistan’s capital, as per a media report. (ANI)