17 April 2005	Sunday	07 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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PESHAWAR, April 16: Sultan Amir Imam, Pakistan’s former counsel-general in Heart of Afghanistan, has said that Pakistan has neither trained Taliban nor helped them form their government in Afghanistan.

It was wrong that the Taliban had come into power with the support of Islamabad. They had control over the country due to the prevalent circumstances there, he claimed.

However, he said Pakistan had trained some Afghan students (Taliban) in 1973 with a purpose to counter the USSR aggression in their country and save Pakistan borders from their reach. However, the training was halted after the end of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government.

The former consul-general was delivering a lecture on the “Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Their Impact on Neighbouring Countries” at the Area Study Centre of the University of Peshawar here on Friday.

The former diplomat said the history of Afghans was full was wars against those who had tried to occupy Afghanistan. Pakistan had provided training to Afghan students, including Hikmatyar and Ahmad Shah Mahsud, in 1973 to resist the USSR.

However, the training had been stopped after Zia ul Haq took over on July 5, 1977.

Keeping in view the situation in the region, the training of Afghans had been restarted in 1979 with the support of US, he said and added that besides logistic support and training provided, and literature had been distributed among Afghans to promote the spirit of Jihad.

He said the Afghans had welcomed the emergence of the Taliban because they had been fed up by the continuous wars between various warlords.

In the beginning, the US had welcomed Taliban. Despite

having no political vision, the people of Afghanistan also hailed the Taliban for their certain steps.

He said the Taliban had not any political agenda, but they developed their judiciary and reformed the whole structure of the war-ravaged country.

They disarmed the warlords and destroyed the cultivation of poppy and banned it for the future, he informed and added that they had provided education to their fellow citizens free of cost and brought fundamental changes in health sector.