Pakistan responds to Taliban advances

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Afghans have “broken the shackles of slavery” in a speech about cultural imperialism.

His comments criticising education in English in Pakistan came a day after the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, following days of rapid advances.

Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognise the Afghan Taliban Government in 1996 and is expected to make key decisions today at its national security committee meeting chaired by the prime minister and attended by senior military and intelligence agency officials.

Separately, Pakistan’s major religious political parties Jamat-e-Islami and JUI-F congratulated the Afghan Taliban on their recent “success” and extended their full support and co-operation to the movement in Afghanistan. Some members of these religious groups also distributed sweets to celebrate the Taliban takeover.

The Taliban are also in control of the two major border crossings with Pakistan. One of them, the Torkham crossing, was briefly closed to pedestrians and trade after it was seized by Taliban fighters. Pakistan is not currently allowing any new refugees to enter the country and Afghans are therefore only allowed to return to their country via these crossings.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi met a delegation of Afghan political leaders from Northern Afghanistan who expressed their concerns regarding the inclusion of minorities and other ethnic groups in any future government of Afghanistan.

Source: BBC