New Delhi: The Taliban has hit out at Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu for his comments on security threats originating from Afghanistan during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ Meeting held in Delhi last month.
The Taliban government’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid Sunday said in a statement that they “rejected” Shoigu’s statement “that armed groups from Afghanistan are a major threat to the security of the Central Asian Countries”.
On 28 April, heads of defence ministries from SCO countries like Russia, India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, gathered in New Delhi.
During his address at the meeting, Shoigu had noted the growing number of extremist groups in Afghanistan in recent years.
“Numerous radical extremist groups entrenched in the territory of Afghanistan pose the main threat, promoting their ideas and efforts in neighboring republics,” he said. “The probability of infiltration by gangs of various international terrorist organisations, such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and the Islamic Movement of East Turkestan, is increasing.”
The Russian defence minister further called for SCO countries to enhance coordination and joint efforts against terrorism, separatism and extremism in the region and said that the topic of Afghanistan must be kept on the agenda of the SCO going forward.
In response, the Taliban spokesperson claimed that there has been no security threat from Afghanistan to the region since it forcibly took power in August 2021.
“Officials of the Russian Government should understand that in the last two years, there has been no threat from Afghanistan to the security of the countries of the region and world,” said Zabihullah Mujahid.
However, there have been reports of countries in the region, including India, receiving countless refugees fleeing violence and terror attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.
In its statement, the Taliban further claimed that its security forces have been able to defeat the “remnants” of ISIS in Afghanistan.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)