“Does this Taliban regime have any conduct that reflects Islamic values?” the Pak army officer said, “What they do to women, to children… issuing fatwas.”
Pakistan’s military spokesperson has flayed the relationship between the Taliban regime of Afghanistan and India’s ruling establishment as that of “master and slave”.
“Allah Almighty has made it very clear — do not take the disbelievers (kafirs) as your friends/protectors. If you do so, then you are no longer among the Muslims,” said Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, invoking a Quranic verse to attack an Afghan Taliban minister’s remarks describing close India-Afghanistan ties last month.
This angry reaction by Chaudhry, as Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of the Pak military, came at a press conference in Rawalpindi on Friday, July 31. It was primarily to brief the media on Pakistan’s counter-terrorism operations and the security situation in Balochistan.
He was asked about the relations between India’s ruling BJP and its parent body RSS, self-described as Hindu nationalist organisations, and the Taliban regime that claims to represent Islamic best practices of governance.
“Does this Taliban regime have any conduct that reflects Islamic values?” the Pak army officer said. “What they do to women, what they do to children, issuing fatwas while sitting comfortably and declaring the bloodshed of any Muslim permissible — what connection does this have with Islam? It has no connection with Islam whatsoever,” he added.
State broadcaster PTV also shared parts of this press conference (such as the one below).
The officer pointedly referred to remarks made by Afghanistan’s Taliban regime’s minister of agriculture Mawlawi (or Maulvi) Ataullah Omari, who had visited India around a month ago.
At an India-Afghanistan trade and industry interaction event in New Delhi, Omari had said he felt at home in India from the moment he landed.
“From the very first day I landed in India, I received a warm welcome from the Indian government, the Minister of External Affairs, and everyone I met. It feels as if I am among my own people. It feels like our own country. Our DNA is one,” Omari said. The remark reportedly drew smiles and a warm response from Indian officials present at the event.
The Pak army spokesman brought up and scoffed at the “same DNA” remark on Friday — clips have since gone viral. “I am not talking about the Afghan people; I am talking about the Afghan Taliban regime. We have to be very careful in understanding whose DNA is actually the same. The DNA is not the same as that of the ordinary Afghan people. The common Afghan people are being crushed under the oppression of this Taliban regime. Their DNA is not the same as theirs,” he said.
He then argued that India-Taliban ties were religiously impermissible. “Maulvi sahib became emotional and ended up saying more than he should have, believing they were somehow very close… The real relationship between the Indian BJP or RSS and the Taliban regime is that of a master and a slave. The oppressive system in India is their master, and they are its servants. What is the RSS doing? What is this so-called ‘Hindu rashtra (nation)’ doing? It is oppressing Muslims, oppressing Kashmiris, committing injustice.” He accused the Taliban regime of “serving that agenda even more than them”.