Whether or not India recognises Taliban, govt should have opened dialogue with Taliban: Asaduddin Owaisi
Aug 16, 2021
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], August 16 : India should have opened dialogue with the Taliban before it had full control of Afghanistan, said All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday.
Speaking to ANI, the AIMIM chief said that ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan are being used by terror outfits like ISIS and Al-Qaeda as their bases, which will become a problem in future for India,
"Whether or not India recognises Taliban, the government should have to open channels of communication with them. We lost time on that. For the reconstruction of Afghanistan, India has spent nearly USD 3 billion. We have constructed Afghanistan's parliament which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani over there," said Owaisi.
"Now, the Taliban is in complete control of full Afghanistan. We have no communication, no dialogue with them. All international and security experts have said that talks should have been done. But, for last seven years Central government has failed to read what is happening," he added.
The AIMIM chief said when he raised this issue in Parliament, he was scoffed at and criticised.
"My biggest problem is that there are many ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan, that's a serious worry for India. ISIS and Al-Qaeda have moved their core headquarters and shifted their recruitment from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan. Jaish-e-Mohammed is now entrenched in the Helmand province," said Owaisi.
He added that the "immediate priority of India is to evacuate our embassy staff, who is stuck over there", at a time when even the "so-called superpower America had to send 3000 Marine Corps only to pull out their embassy staff."
