NEW DELHI: The Taliban on Monday, in a tweet, clarified that it does not support Pakistan’s ‘holy war’ against India and that Kashmir was India’s internal matter. The clarification came after some fake tweets claiming friendship between Islamic Emirate and India was not possible were attributed to Taliban spokespersons Suhail Shaheen and Zabiullah Mujahid.
“The statement that has been circulated in certain media regarding India does not belong to Islamic emirate. The policy of Islamic Emirate regarding neighbour states is very obvious that we don’t interfere in the domestic issues of them,” a tweet from Shaheen clarified.
The Ministry of External Affairs was contacted on the issue but no response was received. Earlier, in an interview, Shaheen had said that the Taliban thinks India can play a crucial role for peace to prevail in Afghanistan. Last year in August, after Article 370 was revoked, the group had rejected any link between the Kashmir and the Afghan issue.
The statement in August was seen by pundits as Taliban’s attempt to approach the Kashmir issue in a more balanced way thus deviating from its earlier stand. It was seen as a move which was made to change the image of the Taliban, which has been considered a pawn of Pakistan.