Pakistan PM Imran Khan makes first visit to Afghanistan, seeking end to Taliban violence
- Pakistan last week accused Afghanistan of allowing India to set up camps on Afghan soil for ‘training, harbouring and launching terrorists into Pakistan’
- Many Afghans resent Pakistan, which they accuse of meddling in domestic affairs, aiding the Taliban and deliberately destabilising Afghanistan
Khan made his first visit to Kabul as violence surged across Afghanistan despite Afghan government negotiators and the Taliban launching peace talks in the Qatari capital Doha in September.
“We notice with concern that the level of violence despite the talks in Qatar ... is rising,” Khan told reporters outside the presidential palace after meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. “Pakistan will do everything, whatever is possible, we will do to help reduce this violence and in fact move towards a ceasefire.”
Khan said it was Pakistan that first persuaded the Taliban to talk to Washington in 2018 for negotiations that eventually yielded a withdrawal deal for all foreign forces. He also credited Islamabad’s efforts in helping start the peace talks in Doha.
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“We the people and government of Pakistan have only one concern, and that concern is ... that we want peace [in Afghanistan],” Khan said.