A day after the Taliban, which has wrested power in Afghanistan, asserted that it considers his country as a second home, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan urged the world to believe in the hardline Sunni Islamist group.

“In the current situation, we need to believe in the Taliban. if the Taliban do not stick to their word, it will be seen at that time,” Khan said during a speech at a ceremony marking the completion of three years of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

Highlighting the ongoing situation in Afghanistan in the context of Pakistan’s foreign policy, Imran Khan said that in the future Islamabad would not allow the use of its soil against anyone.

“We allowed use of our land (in the US-led war in then Taliban-ruled Afghanistan that started in October 2001, a month after the deadly terror attacks in the US). We sacrificed the lives of 70,000 of our people. Our people were killed, our economy was destroyed, yet still, we are being accused of the failure of the US in Afghanistan,” he said on Thursday.

The Taliban was ousted by the US and its allies in the 2001 war. Pakistan has had umbilical ties with the Taliban since the mid-1980s and aided the group even in the recent Afghan civil war with airpower support and medical aid.

“America became our ally yet kept bombing us. America carried out 480 drone strikes in our country. The heirs of those killed in the drone strikes were seeking revenge from the Pakistani government,” he continued. “We have decided not to allow the use of our land in the future.”

Imran Khan said that the Afghan nation was a brave and fighting nation, adding that before the US the former Soviet Union also failed to occupy the country.

“For the time being,” the prime minister repeated his call for the whole world to “must work for peace in Afghanistan”.

Taking potshots at European countries for expressing concern over the condition of Afghan women in the Taliban regime, Imran Khan said Europe “is only concerned about women in Afghanistan. Has anyone ever come from abroad to give rights to women in a country?”

(SAM)