Taliban want India to establish diplomatic ties

NEW YORK (NNI): Afghanistan's ruling Taliban want India to consider renewing diplomatic ties with Kabul, citing the close cooperation extended by the militia to resolve the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane, a representative of the regime here said.

"Following the peaceful end of the hijacking, we think it is time when India has a great opportunity to consider starting diplomatic relations with the Taliban, which is the legitimate government of Afghanistan," Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, the permanent representative-designate of the Taliban government to the United Nations, told India Abroad News Service.

The Indian aircraft, hijacked on Christmas eve while on its flight to Delhi from Kathmandu, was parked in the tarmac in Kandahar, southwestern Afghanistan, for seven days. Kandahar is the headquarters of the Taliban militia.

The hijacking ordeal ended on new year's eve when the Indian government released three jailed Kashmir Mujahideen in return for the freedom of the 161passengers and crew.

"We believe the momentum of cooperation between Kabul and New Delhi generated during the hijacking should be continued and diplomatic contacts should be established," Mujahid said. "We do not know any kind of tension between New Delhi and Kabul, so why cannot there be diplomatic relations between us?" he asked.

India does not recognise the Taliban regime although it has made positive references to the cooperation extended by the militia in resolving the hijack crisis. New Delhi recognises the ousted opposition regime of Burhanuddin Rabbani whose representative is accredited as Kabul's envoy to India.

Mujahid claimed that what India knew about the Taliban government before the hijacking was based on "total misinformation" and entirely negative reporting by Indian and international media, besides what opposition forces had projected about the militia.

"After the hijacking, I think the Indian government saw first-hand what was going on inside our country and the practices under the Taliban's rule and, in view of that, I think the two countries should come closer," he said.

On December 30, asked if the Taliban regime might hand over the hijackers to India as a quid pro quo for New Delhi's recognition of Kabul, Mujahid had replied: "No way." He said the Taliban were not prepared to discuss the matter at a time when innocent human lives were in danger.

But Mujahid indicated on Monday that Kabul was keen to discuss the issue of starting diplomatic relations with New Delhi, although he said there has been no specific initiative so far by the Taliban in this regard.

On the issue of the alleged involvement of Afghans in the occupied Kashmir, Mujahid said Taliban have reiterated several times that there was no involvement of its members in Kashmir, but the Indian government never believed Kabul.

"Our policy is very clear. We do not want to intervene in the internal affairs of any of our neighboring countries and at the same time we do not want any other country to interfere in our internal affairs," he said.

Citing what he described as an instance of negative media propaganda, Mujahid said during the Kargil crisis newspapers reported that Afghan Taliban fighters were going into Indian territory to capture Kashmir. One month later, he said, when the Taliban started a decisive counter-offensive against the forces of opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood in northern Kabul, the same media wrote that the Taliban could not have won but for the help of Kashmiri Mujahideen. "How does one explain this contradiction?" he asked.

He said the only problem with the Indian government is that it believes in propaganda and does not take into consideration the ground realities. But he said he does not think progress in India-Afghanistan relations would be impossible in the aftermath of the hijack drama, during which the Taliban and the Indian authorities worked closely.

Mujahid was very critical of the role of the United Nations, saying the world body has totally failed to resolve the problems of Afghanistan in the last two decades.

"The United Nations has been taking the interests of big countries into consideration while attempting to resolve the problems in our country, and not the facts or the realities on ground," he said. "Because of this, the UN's role in Afghanistan has been a complete failure not only during Taliban's rule, but even before," he added.