Pakistani PM calls meeting of top national security body as Kabul falls to Taliban

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has convened a meeting of the National Security Committee today, Monday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said, a day after Taliban insurgents took over the Afghanistan capital without a fight.
Just last week, a US intelligence estimate said Kabul could hold out for at least three months.
“The situation in Afghanistan will be discussed at the National Security Committee meeting,” Qureshi said in a statement, saying Islamabad would present its “position” after the consultations.
“A key Afghan delegation is in Pakistan for consultations ... to take the peace process forward,” he added.
The foreign minister said he had discussed the situation in the region with PM Khan, who had given him the go-ahead “to hold contacts and consultations with Afghanistan’s neighbors … so that a unified strategy can be formulated.”
In a separate statement, the Pakistani foreign office said Pakistan believed that Afghan leaders should “work together to address the evolving situation and craft a way forward for sustainable peace and stability in Afghanistan.”
“Pakistan has consistently emphasized that a political solution is indispensable. Pakistan will continue to play its constructive role in promoting this goal,” the statement added.
Earlier on Sunday, Taliban insurgents captured the eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, giving them control of one of the main highways into landlocked Afghanistan. They also took over the nearby Torkham border post with Pakistan, leaving Kabul airport the only way out of Afghanistan, which is still in government hands.
The capture of Jalalabad followed the Taliban’s seizure of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif late on Saturday, also with little fighting.
After US-led forces withdrew the bulk of the their remaining troops in the last month, the Taliban campaign accelerated as the Afghan military’s defenses appeared to collapse.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also fled the country on Sunday, saying he had left to avoid bloodshed.
In a post on his Facebook page, Ghani said he had faced a difficult decision, with the fate of millions of Kabul residents and the security of the city at stake after 20 years of war in which countless had already been killed.
“To avoid bloodshed, I thought it would be better to leave,” he said in his first comments since quitting the presidential palace and flying out of the country.
He added that the Taliban insurgents, who later entered the presidential palace in Kabul, now faced a historic test.
“The Taliban won victory in the judgment of sword and gun and they have the responsibility to protect the honor, prosperity and self-respect of our compatriots,” he said.
He did not disclose details on his current location.

Pakistani PM calls meeting of top national security body as Kabul falls to Taliban