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Things have changed; Taliban no longer the same, says Pakistan PM Imran Khan

WION
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaWritten By: Sidhant SibalUpdated: Sep 24, 2019, 08:44 AM IST
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File photo: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Photograph:(AFP)

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'I wish that this deal had been signed...then we had proceeded to the only way the US will eventually take the troops out and there will be peace,' Pakistan PM said.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said that the Taliban has changed and that the group is no longer the same as it was in 2001. 

Speaking in New York, Khan said, "I feel that this is not the Taliban which was there in 2001 who were displaced by the US. Things have changed. Realities have changed, they have learnt. Taliban realises they cannot control the whole of Afganistan. Afghan government knows that there needs to be some kind of peace deal. There has to be a political settlement".

"I wish that this deal had been signed...then we had proceeded to the only way the US will eventually take the troops out and there will be peace," Pakistan PM added.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump called off peace talks with the Taliban after an attack in Afghanistan's Kabul. The US is keen to withdraw forces from Afghanistan and had many rounds of negotiations with the group in Doha.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Khan blamed the US for the dire situation in Pakistan.

He said, "In the 1980s when Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Pakistan along with the US organised the resistance. It was organised by the Pakistani ISI who trained the militants invited from all across the Muslim world to fight against the Soviet Union. So we created these militant groups against the Soviets."

"We first trained these guys for Jihad on the money from the US to fight the soviets and back then it was a great idea and now after the Soviet defeat, we are treating the same groups as terrorists because they are now fighting the US invasion," Pakistan's PM added.

Pakistan has been facing pressure on the issue of terrorism and support to a terrorist on the territory under its control.

Both India and Afghanistan both have raised the issue globally but Islamabad remains unfazed.