India should have had dialogue with Taliban: Asaduddin Owaisi

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has said that India should have had a dialogue with Taliban but the Modi government wasted seven years and failed to read what was happening in Afghanistan.

Now that Taliban is in complete control of full Afghanistan, Owaisi said that the government has no communication or talks with them. He said all international security experts had suggested that India should have a dialogue with Taliban.

"India should have had a dialogue. We should have opened some sort of informal or formal talks with Taliban. We lost time. For last seven years Modi government failed to read what was happening," he said.

The Hyderabad MP pointed out that India spent USD 3 billion on reconstruction of Afghanistan. It constructed Parliament building which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi with then Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. The Salama dam was built with India's money while scholarships were given for Afghan students who came to India.

Owaisi said the serious worry for India were many ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan. "Al Qaeda and ISIS have moved their core headquarters and shifted recruitment from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan. Jaish-e-Mohammed has now entrenched in Helmand area. All security experts have said this," he said.

Owaisi recalled that when he had raised the issue in Parliament, he was criticised and scoffed at for advocating dialogue with Taliban.

"We know what Taliban stand for. We don't agree with their methods and regressive policies but can you imagine what will happen with all those ungoverned spaces. It's definitely huge problem and can become bigger in future," he said.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the United States was set to complete its troop withdrawal.