Islamabad 28 Aug : Taliban defence minister Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid on Sunday accused Pakistan of providing its airspace to US drones in Afghanistan and demanded the neighboring country to stop providing airspace for US drone operations. “They (the US aircraftare using Pakistani airspace to get to us.We ask Pakistan not to utilize its airspace to harm us,” he told reporters in a live press conference in Kabul.
Yaqoob is the son of the late Taliban founder Mullah Omar, and is believed to be the second-highest ranking Taliban commander, the dpa news agency reported.
He claimed that Pakistan’s radar system had been destroyed after the Americans pulled out of Afghanistan in the year 2000, but intelligence sources suggest the possibility that US drones were infiltrating Pakistan and entering Pakistan, which Yaqoob described as an “clear infraction.”
Washington and Islamabad have not responded to the remarks.
In the last month US President Joe Biden announced that a US drone strike killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul’s diplomatic enclave.The Taliban condemned the attack, and claimed that their leadership was unaware of the presence of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Yaqoob said to reporters that on Sunday that the Taliban is still investigating the murder of al-Zawahiri.
The Taliban whom they accuse of keeping relations with al-Qaeda, took control of the country following the chaotic departure of the US-led NATO forces in August 2021.
Since then, no country has officially recognized their de facto government.
int/svn/
