Ranil tells govt. to beware of Afghanistan fallout

… cautions against rushing to recognise new regime there

By Saman Indrajith

The government should take action to prevent Sri Lanka being affected in case of Afghanistan becoming a hub of terrorism, former Prime Minister and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.

Wickremesinghe said that the government should not immediately recognise the Taliban administration in Afghanistan and make any such decision. The government should take action to prevent Lankans visiting Afghanistan immediately. If the government recognised an administration by Taliban who destroyed Bamiyan Buddha statues that would in a way promote terrorism that has become a serious threat to the entire South Asian region, the UNP leader said.

He said that Taliban had been running Afghanistan on a previous occasion and many terror groups had gathered around them during that time. The Al Qaeda, which carried out the Sept 11 attacks on the US too operated from Afghanistan. It is feared that Afghanistan under the Taliban rule would become the new centre of jihadism and Sri Lanka should pay attention to this issue when making a decision whether it would recognize that administration, the UNP leader said.