Pakistanis no longer shies from accepting link with Taliban: Afghan official

Islamabad, Feb 18 (ANI): A high-ranking Afghan official has said Pakistanis no longer shy away from accepting their links with the Taliban.

"The relationship with Taliban is clear. Fortunately, the government of Pakistan no longer denies that this relation exists," The Dawn quoted him, as saying.

However, he did not elaborate what he meant by "links with Taliban".

The government, in its public pronouncements, has always denied maintaining links with the group.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's blunt demand to Pakistan for bringing Taliban leaders to the negotiating table has shocked the political and military leadership in Islamabad, keeping both countries poles apart in terms of reconciliation with the Taliban even after two days of high-level talks.

"Deliver Mullah Omar? If that is the expectation, then there's no reality check then. Then they're not only unrealistic, but preposterous," these were the words of Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar over Karzai's demands.

Khar's words on Friday summed up how a trip hailed by Karzai as the most important in the past decade concluded without any solution. (ANI)