Taliban must be encouraged to give up violence: Karzai

• Former Afghan president asks militant militia to engage in a peace process to oust US from Afghanistan

Former Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai has said that the Taliban are Afghans and those who are Afghans and want to give up violence must be encouraged and supported to do so.

In an interview with The Hindu newspaper, he said that the Russians weren’t the only ones to talk to the Taliban. “The US held talks with the Taliban, both directly and through Pakistan. They met them in Qatar, I know that, and so have other countries,” he said.

The former president also said that the Germans have held talks with the Taliban. “The Norwegians conducted meetings between Taliban and Afghan civil society representatives in Oslo,” he pointed out. “I have made it very clear that I can no longer call the Taliban my brothers,” he said.

“Taliban’s outrages against the Afghan people are horrendous, and I say every attack they commit now is helping continue the US presence in Afghanistan. If they truly want the US to leave, they must engage in a peace process with the Afghan government and people,” he said.

Karzai said that India should have its own policy on Afghanistan, based on its own view of the region, its own interests in the region, and the interests of peace and stability in Afghanistan. About do more, he warned India not to send its (Indian) military in Afghanistan. “The do more means provide Afghanistan what it needs to stand on its own feet,” he said.

He said that the Americans waited for three years for the Islamic State militants to infiltrate into Afghanistan, then they (the US) comes and hits Afghanistan in the name of the Islamic State, and that too with the deadliest bomb they have short of a nuclear weapon. He said that the motive for the US was clearly to test its bomb in Afghanistan, and to send tough signals to its rivals at the same time.

“The American bomb was a violation of Afghanistan, it was an attack on Afghanistan. And the US is supposed to be our ally. They have signed a bilateral security agreement with us. According to the agreement, they are supposed to strengthen Afghanistan, defeat terrorism, and protect our borders,” he pointed out.

After the signing of the US-Afghanistan Bilateral Security Agreement, signed in 2014, the country (Afghanistan) has become more insecure than ever before, Karzai said. During the interview, the former Afghan president severely criticised Pakistan and Pakistan’s policies on Afghanistan, besides having questions on American support to the Islamic Republic.