Reconciliation: We will talk to all Taliban, Mukhtar

Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has said that Afghan and Pakistani Taliban will be included in the process to find a political solution to the Afghanistan imbroglio. “The government knows where the (Pakistani) Taliban are and where their groups are based and contacting them is no problem. We will have talks to all Taliban,” he told the BBC in an interview. Mukhtar said that the Taliban go to Saudi Arabia for peace talks and they are also in contact with other countries in the Middle East. Asked about the recent statement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai who accused that 470 rockets were fired into Afghanistan from Pakistan within a week, the defence minister said his statement should be seen in the perspective of the recent conference held in Iran where Karzai had very useful talks with President Zardari. “On his return to Afghanistan someone handed Karzai a statement and he just read it out,” he added.




Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2011.