Pakistan denies its envoy to US said India should engage with Taliban

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office denied on Sunday that its country’s envoy to Washington had said India should engage with the Taliban, after Reuters quoted Ambassador Asad Khan in a news report.
On Saturday, a Reuters report headline stated: ‘India should talk to Taliban if Delhi feels it will bolster peace push,’ and attributed the statement to the Pakistani ambassador.
“The ambassador did not say what the news headline implies. Pakistan’s views on India’s role are well-known,” foreign office spokesperson, Aisha Farooqui, told Arab News.
Pakistan and India have been to war three times since they won independence from the British in 1947. Over the years, Pakistan has gained influence over the Taliban.
“Pakistani envoy has not said that they [India and Taliban] should engage. Rather, he was saying it is their [India’s] decision,” the spokesperson continued. “Even the Taliban have expressed their viewpoint on the subject.”
“This is the time to focus on earliest commencement of intra-Afghan negotiations rather than dwell on any extraneous issue,” she said.
Earlier, in an interview with Indian newspaper, The Hindu, US Special Representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, had said an India-Taliban engagement would be "appropriate.”
When asked to respond to the statement, Ambassador Khan told Reuters: “It is for India to respond to that suggestion.”
"If India feels that their engagement is going to help the peace process, then we would defer to their judgment. But it's not for us to sit in judgment on what they should do or they shouldn't do,” Reuters further quoted the ambassador.
Pakistan’s former ambassador to Washington, Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhary, told Arab News that New Delhi had no constructive role to play in the Afghanistan peace process.
“India has no political role in Afghanistan. They have played negative role there to harm Pakistan,” he said.
“Americans want to give India some role but it is hard that Taliban will accept it in any capacity.”