Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby accused the South Asian state of providing so-called “safe havens” to the Taliban and other terrorist groups, but this is a misleading claim. It’s taken for granted that some of the Pashtuns who sought refuge in Pakistan over the years might naturally sympathise with the majority-Pashtun Taliban, but this doesn’t automatically equate to Pakistan providing any “safe havens” to its fighters. This strongly suggests the deliberate implementation of double standards for strategic purposes, namely to manufacture a weaponised narrative for pressuring Pakistan. The answer to why everything is moving so swiftly in Afghanistan is therefore found within that country itself, not in neighboring Pakistan. Islamabad provides no so-called “safe havens” to Taliban fighters or any terrorist group for that matter, but rather serves as the Afghan people’s irreplaceable economic lifeline.

Source: The Express Tribune August 13, 2021 08:13 UTC