ISLAMABAD: A former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan urged the international community on Saturday to revisit its approach to the war-ravaged country by giving serious consideration to economic diplomacy while commenting on the published excerpts of Prince Harry’s memoirs.
The British media recently said Harry had claimed to have killed 25 people in Afghanistan in an autobiographical account that is expected to come out next week.
According to some passages printed in the press, the British royal said Afghan fighters were viewed as “chess pieces” on the battlefield, adding he was not satisfied by the number of people he got to kill in his two tours of duty, though it did not embarrass him either.
“Reported excerpts from Prince Harry’s memoirs on foreign forces see killing Afghans as ‘chess pieces’ reflect Afghan tragedy under decades of foreign occupation,” Pakistan’s ex-envoy to Afghanistan Mansoor Ahmad Khan said in a Twitter post. “At this defining juncture, Afghans & region should evolve a new approach of regional connectivity & shared prosperity.”
A leading Taliban official, who was designated by the interim Afghan administration in Kabul as permanent representative at the United Nations, also criticized Harry in a statement issued earlier in the day.
“You have committed a crime against humanity,” Suhail Shaheen said in his statement. “They were freedom-fighters of their country, you were invaders. Their cause was legitimate. They were heroes of the people but you were their enemy.”
Shaheen, who headed the Taliban political office in Doha and was part of his country’s negotiating team which engaged American officials, said the people of his country “cursed” Harry and others.
In this file photo taken on July 9, 2021, Taliban official Suhail Shaheen attends a press conference in Moscow. (Photo courtesy: AFP/File)
“[We] will see whether the International Court and human rights organizations question you about this crime and bring you to justice or gloss over it,” he continued. “[We] will see whether they are sincere in their mission or raise mere empty slogans.”
Earlier, the British royal was also slammed by another Taliban official, Anas Haqqani, who told him the people he had killed “were not chess pieces” but humans with “families who were waiting for their return.”
“The truth is what you’ve said,” he added. “Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers, military and political leaders. Still, you were defeated in that ‘game’.”
Harry was sent by his country to Afghanistan on military duty to fly attack helicopters. His upcoming memoirs have also triggered political controversies in the United Kingdom.
