Pak NSA calls on countries to engage with Taliban, warns about ‘cost' of abandonment

Speaking at a webinar on Afghanistan’s future and regional stability, Pakistan national security advisor Moeed Yusuf said that abandoning the war-torn country would be a mistake.

Pakistan’s national security advisor on Saturday called on the international community to engage with the Taliban to prevent another refugee crisis, reported news agency PTI. Speaking at a webinar on Afghanistan’s future and regional stability, Pakistan NSA Moeed Yusuf said that abandoning the war-torn country again would be a mistake.

Kabul: Taliban fighters escort women march in support of the Taliban government outside Kabul University, Afghanistan. (AP)

"The world must think about the cost of abandonment of Afghanistan," the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS), organiser of the webinar, quoted Yusuf as saying.

India and Western countries have opted for a wait-and-watch policy as they are apprehensive about engaging with the Islamist fundamentalists given the Taliban’s history of gross human rights violations. Under their harsh version of Sharia law, the Taliban had banned girls education and women at workplaces during the previous rule. They were also notorious for holding public executions in stadiums.

Pakistan, on the other hand, was proactive in the government formation in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that Pakistan's powerful intelligence chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed met the group’s de-factor leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar amid efforts to finalise the government. Baradar was later named the deputy prime minister of the provisional government.

Yusuf said the Western countries committed a catastrophic mistake of abandoning Afghanistan after the conflict between the erstwhile Soviet Union and the so-called Afghan Mujahideen ended. The early 90s witnessed a prolonged civil war which led to the formation of the Taliban under the leadership of Mullah Omar.

He claimed that Pakistan was the only nation that bore the brunt of abandoning Afghanistan, a country that, under the Taliban’s rule, provided shelter to Al Qaeda leaders, resulting in the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Pakistan NSA further stated that the world needs to constructively engage the Afghan Taliban in order to prevent governance collapse and avert another refugee crisis, according to PTI.

(With PTI inputs)