Pakistan supported, nurtured Taliban, says FS Shringla

New Delhi: Expressing India’s security concerns due to the ongoing situation in Afghanistan, Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla on Friday said that Pakistan has “supported and nurtured” the Taliban that replaced the elected government.

Speaking with a group of reporters in Washington, Shringla said, “Pakistan is a neighbour of Afghanistan, they have supported and nurtured the Taliban. There are various elements that are supported by Pakistan — so its role has to be seen in that context.”

Experts believe that Pakistan has been a key player in removing the elected Afghan government from power and establishing a group to a decisive position in Afghanistan with its dark nexus of terrorist groups in the region for over two decades.

Recently, a UN Monitoring report has said that a significant part of the leadership of Al-Qaida resides in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region. Almost all foreign members of ISIL-K and al-Qaida have entered Afghanistan via Pakistan and the leaders of these outfits along with those of the Taliban have been living in Pakistan, the UN report said.

Talking about the current situation in Afghanistan, Shringla said, “I don’t see members of the international community being passive over the situation in Afghanistan. We (India) are not there on the ground, have no assets there. It’s not like we are not doing anything, we are in touch with every country that has an interest in Afghanistan.”

He also stated that “US and India are on the same page” on Afghanistan and they are watching the situation “very closely.”

“Pakistan has enabled Afghanistan, they have supported and nurtured the Taliban. There are various elements there that are Pakistan supported but we are very happy that a resolution we adopted makes mention of the proscribed entities in the UN sanctions list that includes the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),” Foreign Secretary added.

Shringla also said that India has concerns about the “free ingress” that terrorist groups have had in Afghanistan. “So we do have concerns about the free ingress that these two terrorist groups have had in Afghanistan, their role and we will watch that carefully,” he added.

The situation in Afghanistan has been deteriorating after the Taliban seized control of the war-ravaged country. On August 15, the Afghan government fell soon after President Ashraf Ghani left the country.