A group of prominent personalities, including former ministers K Natwar Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Mani Shankar Aiyar, has appealed to the Central government that India should continue to engage with the Taliban.
In a statement titled ”Indian friends of Afghanistan”, the group expressed concern over the situation in Afghanistan, and urged the Centre to not allow any political party to use the developments in the crisis-hit country to communally polarise Indian society for electoral gains.
This comes a day after India held a meeting with the Taliban, in a first formal high-level engagement between the two sides on a day the US completed withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan.
“We welcome the government’s first official acknowledgement of its engagement with the Taliban in Doha and the positive assurances given by the latter,” the group said.
“No political party should be allowed to use the developments in Afghanistan to communally polarise Indian society for electoral gains and any such attempts should be dealt with sternly,” it added.
A group of prominent personalities, including former ministers K Natwar Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Mani Shankar Aiyar, has appealed to the Central government that India should continue to engage with the Taliban.
In a statement titled ”Indian friends of Afghanistan”, the group expressed concern over the situation in Afghanistan, and urged the Centre to not allow any political party to use the developments in the crisis-hit country to communally polarise Indian society for electoral gains.
This comes a day after India held a meeting with the Taliban, in a first formal high-level engagement between the two sides on a day the US completed withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan.
“We welcome the government’s first official acknowledgement of its engagement with the Taliban in Doha and the positive assurances given by the latter,” the group said.
“No political party should be allowed to use the developments in Afghanistan to communally polarise Indian society for electoral gains and any such attempts should be dealt with sternly,” it added.
The signatories to the statement include former external affairs ministers Singh and Sinha, as well as former diplomat and Congress leader Aiyar, retired IPS officer Julio Rebeiro, former IAS officer and an ex-vice chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia Najeeb Jung, Afghan expert Vedpratap Vaidik, senior journalist Saeed Naqvi, former diplomat K C Singh, social activist Sandeep Pandey, former Rajya Sabha member Majeed Memon and Forum for a New South Asia founder Sudheendra Kulkarni.
The signatories urged the new establishment that would be formed in Afghanistan to protect Hindus, Sikhs and other non-Muslim minorities, and facilitate the dignified return of those who were forced to leave their country.
The group said that there should be no discrimination on grounds of religion in providing shelter to Afghans who have been forced to leave their country.
It also said that new establishment should ensure that no terrorist organisation has a sanctuary in Afghanistan and that its territory is not used for terrorist and extremist activities targeting any country in the world, near or far.
