Imran Khan said that 70,000 Pakistanis were killed after the US war in Afghanistan.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the US ‘really messed it up’ in Afghanistan as he questioned the US intent for the 2001 invasion of the country in the first place and then sought a political solution with the Taliban. questioned his later efforts. state of weakness.
Khan also said that the only good solution to the situation in Afghanistan is a political settlement that is “inclusive” and includes all factions, including the Taliban.
“I think the US really messed it up in Afghanistan,” Khan said during an interview with Judy Woodruff on PBS News Hour, the Dawn newspaper reported.
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Under a deal with the Taliban, the US and its NATO allies agreed to withdraw all troops in exchange for a commitment by the militants to prevent extremist groups from operating in areas under their control. US President Joe Biden has announced that American troops will be out of the country by August 31.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan with brute force from 1996 to 2001 when a US invasion toppled their government.
The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 after the Taliban refused to hand over al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
Khan criticized the US for “trying to seek a military solution in Afghanistan when there was never a solution”.
“And people like me who kept saying there was no military solution, who know Afghanistan’s history, we were called – people like me were called anti-Americans. I was called Taliban Khan,” Khan said.
He lamented that by the time the US realized there was no military solution in Afghanistan, “unfortunately, the bargaining power of the Americans or NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces) was gone”.
The prime minister said the US should have made a political settlement long ago, when there were 150,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan.
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“But once they reduced the troops to barely 10,000, and then, when they gave the exit date, the Taliban thought they had won. And so, now it was very difficult for them to compromise,” They said.
When the interviewer asked whether he thought the resurgence of the Taliban was a positive development for Afghanistan, the prime minister reiterated that the only good outcome would be a political settlement, “one that is inclusive”.
“Obviously, the Taliban (will) be part of that government,” he said.
Khan described it as a “worst-case scenario” where Afghanistan descends into a civil war. “From Pakistan’s point of view, this is the worst case scenario, because then we … we face two scenarios, one (of them) is a refugee problem,” he said.
“Already, Pakistan is hosting more than three million Afghan refugees. And what we fear is that there will be a protracted civil war. [bring] more refugees.
And our financial condition is not such that we have another inflow.”
Elaborating on the second problem, he expressed concern that the outcome of a possible civil war across the border could “flow into Pakistan”.
Prime Minister Khan explained that the Taliban were ethnic Pashtuns and that “if this (civil war and violence in Afghanistan) continues, the Pashtuns on our side will join in.” “That … is the last thing we want,” he said.
When asked about Pakistan’s alleged military, intelligence and financial aid to Afghanistan, he replied: “I find it highly unfair”.
Khan said that 70,000 Pakistanis were killed after the American war in Afghanistan, even when “Pakistan had nothing to do with that incident. [in New York on September 11, 2001]”
At the time, al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan and “there was no terrorist Taliban in Pakistan,” he said, adding that no Pakistani national was involved in the attack on the World Trade Center.
“We had nothing to do with it,” he reiterated, adding that he regretted that Pakistan’s economy had lost $150 billion as a result of the war in Afghanistan.
When asked about his controversial remarks on rape, which drew widespread criticism and drew rebuke from civil society, political circles and social media, Khan said that “whoever commits rape, only and completely, That person is responsible.”
“No matter what happens, no matter how provocative a woman is or what she wears, the man who commits rape is solely responsible.
The victim is never responsible,” he clarified.
In an interview with HBO last month, Khan had said: “If a woman dressed too little, it would have an effect on men unless they were robots.
I mean it’s common sense. If you have a society where people haven’t seen that sort of thing, it will affect them.”
He claimed that his comments in the HBO interview were taken out of context.
He said he would never say “such a stupid thing” that “the rapist is responsible… always the rapist is responsible.”
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