Pakistan wants to give Afghan Talibans leadership to Haqqani Network: Indian Ambassador Amar Sinha

KABUL: The ongoing peacemaking attempts between Pakistan and the Taliban factions might end up with the Haqqanis emerging as the leaders of the Taliban, according to Amar Sinha, India’s Ambassador in Kabul. Pakistan in recent weeks has been negotiating with the Taliban to restart the talks with Kabul that were stalled in July following a meeting in the resort city of Murree near the Pakistani capital. Mr. Sinha said the recent attack on Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in Quetta had shown that rivalry is intense inside Taliban, but Pakistan seems to be negotiating with only one faction. After the Afghan media splashed his opinion on the reported agreement, reached in Paris between the President of Afghanistan and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, on starting the dialogue with the Taliban, Mr. Sinha said He clarified that the Pakistan media and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad reacted to his comments without perusing the entire text of what he had stated about the meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ashraf Ghani.(The Hindu)