Pakistan won’t support takeover of Kabul by force: FM Qureshi
Says Afghans need to accept each other
Picture: Lotfullah Najafizada
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that his country will not support a “takeover” of Afghanistan’s capital by force.
“We have never said…we have never supported or advocated a takeover of Kabul by force,” Qureshi told Tolo News in an interview.
The foreign minister said that the Afghan leadership, including Taliban, has to “reconcile” and find a way to end the violence in the country.
“If you fail, if the Afghan leadership fails, then yes, we are heading for a civil war,” said Qureshi while responding to a question. “And God forbid, if there is one (civil war) then you suffer and we suffer as well.”
He added that the Afghans need to accept each other and find a way to coexist.
“You know the people and government in Afghanistan and the Taliban have been fighting for decades now, they’re both Afghans,” the minister said “You have to reconcile, and you have to find a way forward.”
Related: Decades on, Afghans in Pakistan yearn for peace back home
The US forces will leave Afghanistan by September 11 under a deal Trump administration signed with Taliban in Doha last year. The representatives of Afghan government and Taliban have met twice in Doha to negotiate peace but they haven’t reached a political settlement.
The foreign minister said that the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been using the Afghan soil to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan and they have spoken to the Afghan authorities and ask them to monitor its activities.
“When you say no safe havens, we say no safe heavens on both sides,” Qureshi said before he denied the presence of Afghan Taliban’s Shura in Quetta and Peshawar.
“I think the Taliban Shura is sitting right there in Afghanistan,” said the minister.
During the interview, the minister said that Pakistan doesn’t have any problem with Afghanistan having “sovereign and bilateral relations with India”. But, he added, it bothers him if they used Afghan soil against Pakistan.
Related: Pakistan condemns Afghan NSA’s ‘baseless’ allegations
“We have very famous person who is admitted to carrying out subversive activities, terrorist activities in Pakistan…in Balochistan,” said Qureshi, referring to Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.
Jadhav, a serving commander of the Indian Navy and a spy of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was arrested in Balochistan in 2016. In his trial at a military court, he had confessed to his involvement in acts of terrorism and was sentenced to death in 2017.
