ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Thursday Pakistan was neither “responsible” for the actions of the Afghan Taliban, nor a spokesperson for the group, local media reported.

The PM was speaking to a group of Afghan journalists visiting Islamabad.

“What the Taliban are doing or are not doing has nothing to do with us and we are not responsible, neither are we the spokesperson of the Taliban,” Khan was quoted by Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper as saying.

He said a “military solution” in Afghanistan had been a “flawed strategy” of the United States, asking what the US could achieve from operating bases out of Pakistan which it could not achieve by operating in Afghanistan for two decades.

“It was a flawed strategy. They should have talked to the Taliban from a position of strength when there were 150,000 NATO soldiers present in Afghanistan. There is no reason for the US to operate from Pakistan,” Khan said, reiterating that Pakistan would not get dragged into more conflict in Afghanistan.

The PM said Pakistan would not accept Indian participation in the Afghan peace process until New Delhi reverted its decision to strip the disputed Kashmir region of its constitutional autonomy.

“Pakistan has always desired peace with India, but it was India which did not want peace,” Khan said.