Taliban won't talk to Afghanistan govt as long as Ashraf Ghani is president, says Imran Khan

Islamabad: Amid large-scale fighting between Afghan forces and Taliban, Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has said that the terror group would not talk to the Afghanistan government until Asharaf Ghani remains the country’s president. Talking to foreign journalists in Islamabad, Imran said a political settlement was looking difficult under current conditions. “I tried to persuade the Taliban… three to four months back when they came here,” Pakistan’s The News International quoted Imran as saying. “The condition is that as long as Ashraf Ghani is there, we (Taliban) are not going to talk to the Afghan government,” Khan added. Afghan govt has been criticising Islamabad for raising instability in the region as Kabul believes that Pakistan assists the Taliban in escalating violence in Afghanistan. Recently, Afghan people started a social media campaign against Pakistan, blaming them for the deteriorating situation of the country. Due to rising violence in the country by the Taliban, the situation is deteriorating badly as the terror group has been looting people and killing civilians after capturing multiple areas from the government. The Taliban escalated its offensive against the Afghan forces soon after the US forces started fleeing Afghanistan in large numbers after the peace deal signed between Washington and the Taliban in February last year.