Pakistan in touch with Taliban to safeguard its interests: ISPR

Pakistan in touch with Taliban to safeguard its interests: ISPR

RAWALPINDI — Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Babar Iftikhar said on Monday that Pakistan was in touch with the Taliban in order to safeguard its interests.

Talking to a news channel, the ISPR DG said there was no reason to doubt the intentions of the Taliban and border management was being improved.

“We will soon secure our border. We have completed 90 percent of fencing at the Pak-Afghan border despite difficulties,” he said, adding that Taliban have reiterated multiple times that Afghan soil would not be used against any country.

Speaking about fake news being propagated by the Indian media, Iftikhar said that Indian channels promoted fake news, which became a source of ridicule for them at international platforms.

“There are even some Indian journalists who have condemned fake news propagated by their local media outlets,” he said.

The ISPR chief said in a presser soon after the Taliban takeover of Kabul that Pakistan reached out to assist the Afghan government on a number of occasions. It also offered them military help with training because peace in Afghanistan was directly linked to peace in Pakistan, he said.

Iftikhar said the Pakistani military top brass called on the Afghan government about seven times.

“Our army chief visited Afghanistan four times and we even offered them an intelligence-sharing deal but Afghanistan preferred to train thousands of its troops from the Indian Army,” the ISPR DG said.