Ranil cautions against recognising new Taliban govt

COLOMBO: Former prime minister and opposition MP Ranil Wickremesinghe has said Sri Lanka must not be in a hurry to recognize the new Taliban government in Afghanistan.

In a video statement, Wickremesinghe said the government must remove the Sri Lanka embassy in Kabul and ought to consider curtailing travel to Afghanistan which he said is in danger of once again being a hub of terrorism.

“We need to remember that by endorsing the Taliban, the movement that destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues, the terrorism that was removed from that region can take root there again,” he said.

Sri Lanka has yet to officially make its stance known on recent events in Afghanistan which saw the Taliban that was defeated in 2001 in a US-led invasion, recapture power by ousting the government of President Ashraf Ghani.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa earlier tweeted that he spoke to former Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai to “inquire about the ongoing developments unfolding in his country.”

Rajapaksa said he reaffirmed Sri Lanka’s continued support to the people of Afghanistan.