Security situation in Afghanistan deeply worrying: India

Deeply concerned over the security situation in Afghanistan, India has told the UN Security Council that the talks of "reconciliation" requires greater caution and said distinctions like "good" and "bad" Taliban could be seen as reflection of "weakness".

Deeply concerned over the security situation in Afghanistan, India has told the UN Security Council that the talks of "reconciliation" requires greater caution and said distinctions like "good" and "bad" Taliban could be seen as reflection of "weakness".

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"The security situation remains deeply worrying. It does not take much foresight to predict that the coming six months will be difficult, most of all, for the Afghan people," the Indian Ambassador to the UN, Hardeep Puri, said at a special meeting of the Council On Afghanistan.

"Assymetric warfare and complex terrorist attacks are being mounted and the well-springs that sustain such terror show no signs of being drained. We need to ponder deeply over how best this can be achieved," Puri said.

In this context, India continues to have reservations regarding the language used in UN reports to describe terror attacks. Surely "anti-government elements" or "insurgents" are not mounting such operations, he said.

On reconciliation, Puri said while this is often a corollary of military strategies, in Afghanistan, this is a matter that requires great caution.

He also cautioned that by pursuing "unworkable" distinctions like "bad" or "good" Taliban, "we are projecting impressions of weakness, desperation".