Pakistan-Taliban talks: Afghanistan slams Islamabad; India says closely monitoring development
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New Delhi said, no 'ungoverned spaces where terrorist and their proxies can operate and where they can create bases to target India' should form as the outcome of any talks.
Even as last week saw pictures of camaraderie and bonhomie between the Taliban and Pakistan, Afghanistan has come hard on Islamabad for hosting the group and India has said that New Delhi is monitoring the development.
President Ashraf Ghani's spokesman Sediq Sediqqi, speaking to WION, slammed Pakistan and said, "We don’t know why these Taliban-Pak are talks happening!"
Sediq added, "The key to sustainable peace is in Afghanistan. This kind of hosting of the Taliban by Pakistan only emboldens them to continue and hold to their violence against the Afghan government."
Meanwhile, India is also "closely monitoring" the developments from Islamabad on the Taliban-Pakistan talks.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, in his weekly press briefing, on Friday said, "All sections of the Afghan government, including the legitimately elected Afghan government, should be part of the Afghan peace process" and "all processes should respect the constitutional legacy and political mandate" clearly highlighting the exclusion of government in Kabul will not be accepted by India.
New Delhi also said, no "ungoverned spaces where terrorist and their proxies can operate and where they can create bases to target India" should form as the outcome of any talks.
India did not have ties with Afghanistan when it was under the Taliban's control in the late 199s. Pakistan was among the very few countries to have ties with Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. India saw its plane hijacked - Indian Airlines flight 814 - and taken to Kandahar in 1999 by Pakistan-based terrorist.
New Delhi is engaging with the United States and Afghanistan both on the recent developments in the South Asian country.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met with US special envoy on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad last week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the first meet since US President Donald Trump cancelled talks with the Taliban.
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