“When the American troops entered Afghanistan and took action against the Taliban, Pakistan should have been neutral in its position”, Khan added.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (Photo: IANS)
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said that his country should have been neutral over the US troops’ action against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Khan further said that the Mujahideens were trained by Pakistan to carry out “jihad” against the Soviet Union when they occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s. He also said that these Mujahideens were funded by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
“When the American troops entered Afghanistan and took action against the Taliban, Pakistan should have been neutral in its position”, Khan added.
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“Now a decade later when the Americans come into Afghanistan, the same groups who are all in Pakistan are supposed to say that now because Americans are there, it is no longer jihad its terrorism. It was a big contradiction, (sic)” Imran Khan said.
Khan said that Pakistan lost 70,000 people and over 100 billion dollars to the economy. “In the end, we were blamed for the Americans not succeeding in Afghanistan. I felt it was very unfair on Pakistan,” he added.
“I strongly felt that Pakistan should have been neutral because by joining in, these groups turned against us,” the Pakistan prime minister said.
Khan’s comments come after US President Donald Trump declared that the talks between Taliban and Washington are ‘over’.
The announcement came at the end of nine rounds of talks when most of the differences between the US and Taliban appeared resolved.
Earlier In July, PM Imran Khan visited the US, where he had met President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
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