Calling it a “propaganda" peddled by Pakistan, the Office of Amrullah Saleh, the first vice president of Afghanistan, on Friday debunked reports claiming that he has left the war-torn country and moved to Tajikistan amid the crisis. Saleh’s advisor Rezwan Murad said Saleh is in Kabul holding meeting with President Ashraf Ghani to plan counter offensive against the Taliban.
Speaking to CNN-News18 over reports that Saleh has left Afghanistan and moved to Tajikistan, Murad said, “Well first of all, this is propaganda war of the enemy, especially by Pakistanis that first vice president has left the country (Afghanistan).. No, he is right now in Kabul and is meeting President Ghani to tackle the situation, to plan counter offensive against Pakistanis malicious Taliban."
On being asked about provinces falling under Taliban, he said, “Yes, there are some reports that some leaders have dealt through some Taliban leaders and convince some local commanders to surrender. But this is not mean that Afghanistan is falling under control of Pakistani proxies. Afghanistan will fight back. There are reports that in some provincial capitals, to avoid civilian casualties, the security forces ordered to move back to their area outside the cities. So, in next 24-48 hours, the government will announce its stand."
Coming down heavily on Pakistan for supporting terrorism, Murad asserted that the Afghan forces and the government will fight back to protect its country and citizens.
“Afghanistan forces and government are committed to defend the country against the Pakistani proxies, Taliban and other Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorists who they came from Pakistani Madrasas. According to our intelligence information, 43,000 Pakistani madrasa students were trained by ISI and they came to fight. So there are setbacks, the fight still continuing and will defend our country. This is our country, our soil. We will not let the Pakistanis to rule through the Taliban and through their proxies or terrorist networks," he said.
“So next 24 hours are important. We are expecting some developments of big news from the leadership and I think Pakistan rule is clear this war is launched by Pakistan. Pakistan cities are full of Taliban. The world is watching everything. We do not need anything to prove to the world that Pakistan is a sponsor of terrorism and every instability in this region. We are facing direct aggression from Pakistan and the nation is standing against this aggression," he added.
For the unversed, an invasion that was stepped up in May has now been able to capture crucial cities across the country. The latest in the list of cities captured by the Taliban are the provincial capitals of Kandahar, Lashkar Gah, Herat, Ghazni, and Farah.
Even as international troops pull out of Afghanistan, the Taliban have managed to capture several key cities, now almost closing in on the national capital of Kabul. Several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, are in the process of evacuating citizens from the country which is now almost completely under Taliban control.
Many Indians are among the foreign nationals present in the country with three engineers being rescued on Thursday from an area that was not under the control of the Afghanistan government.
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