Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the country will shut its border in “national interest” with neighbouring Afghanistan if the Taliban takes over the country after the withdrawal of US troops from the region concludes. “We will have to shut our border, we have to safeguard our national interest,” the Associated Press said, quoting Qureshi. Qureshi claimed that Pakistan has sheltered 3.5 million Afghan refugees over the years as the Taliban ravaged Afghanistan but “we can’t take more”. Secondly, we do not want another influx of refugees,” Khan said. Khan criticised the decision to withdraw troops claiming that the leverage Pakistan had over the Taliban has been diminished by US withdrawing troops.

Source: Hindustan Times June 27, 2021 17:03 UTC