Former Afghanistan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has said India should refrain from using the country’s territory for carrying out operations against Pakistan.
Hekmatyar, who also heads militant group Hezb-e-Islami, said some anti-state powers don’t want Afghanistan to be stable and a central government to be formed in the war-torn country. Therefore, he said, foreign agencies are trying to incite the people to go against the state.
He said India should focus on solving its internal issues rather than talking about Afghanistan’s future.
He said India should also refrain from using Afghanistan’s territory to avenge the freedom fighters in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.
Hekmatyar praised Imran Khan’s views that Afghanistan needs peace in the long term.
Earlier this week, the Afghan Taliban announced the formation of the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan – days after the group took control of the Afghanistan capital Kabul.
Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid tweeted that the Islamic Emirate wants good diplomatic and trade relations with all countries. He rejected reports of Afghanistan suspending trade with any country.
As these rapid developments took place, the exits of several key figures from the old guard made the news. One of the more prominent ones was of the president.
On Wednesday, news broke from the United Arab Emirates that said it is hosting former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani “on humanitarian grounds”, after he fled his country amid the Taliban takeover.
“The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds,” it said in a brief statement.
One of the most significant visuals that came out of Afghanistan was the Taliban’s first-ever press conference since the takeover. It took place on Tuesday as the Taliban’s deputy leader and co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar landed in Kandahar, otherwise seen as the spiritual capital of the Taliban.
The press conference was the first time Zabihullah appeared to the world.
“We have expelled the foreigners. This is a great moment for the whole nation,” Mujahid said. He then went on to lay out the broad policies of the new regime. One of the chief concerns would be the fate of the people who had supported, worked with or allied with the US or Nato forces or the old Afghan government. There were fears that these people would be hunted down and made to pay.
Mujahid repeated, however, that the Taliban would not seek revenge and that a general amnesty had been declared. “Everyone is forgiven,” the spokesman said.
Mujahid said that the Taliban had ended the war and meant to establish peace. He said they will complete the political process as quickly as possible and continue to interact with the international community.
The Taliban spokesman assured that under the Taliban rule women would not be discriminated against. However, he added, as Muslim women they must follow the Sharia.
Mujahid pointed out that private media in Afghanistan was free and independent, adding that the Taliban are committed to the media within the cultural framework.
He also pledged that Afghanistan, the source of most of the world’s heroin according to a UN drugs control agency, will be free of narcotics, asking the international community to help it develop alternative crops for farmers who have relied on opium poppies for their livelihood.
The spokesperson added that Afghanistan won’t allow itself to harbour anyone targeting other nations. This was a key demand in a deal the militants struck with the Trump administration in 2020 that led to the ultimate US withdrawal under current President Joe Biden.
Earlier, he announced that the Taliban’s deputy leader and co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar had arrived in Kandahar, landing in the insurgent group’s former capital just days after they took control of the country, AFP reported.
A Taliban spokesman said on Twitter that Baradar and a high-level delegation “reached their beloved country in the afternoon” from Qatar.
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