Statement from Former PM Ranil Wickramasinge
The world is now facing a new threat from the COVID-19 pandemic. That is, the Taliban seizure of state power in Afghanistan. The Taliban had previously ruled Afghanistan with a number of jihadist and terrorist groups. The United States was attacked on September 11 by the Al Qaeda terrorist organization operating in Afghanistan.
Despite the new situation, there is a suspicion that Afghanistan will once again become a centre for jihadist terrorist organizations under a Taliban government. We must also keep that in mind. None of us can condone the attack on the nations and peoples of the world on the misinterpretation of the Qur’an. Its threat is posed to traditional Muslim states and other countries.
Therefore, we must pay special attention to this at this time. We have no justifiable reason to accept Taliban rule. We can accept this regime as a government only if the terrorist groups withdraw from the country.
We must remove the Sri Lankan embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. We need an embassy in Central Asia. We can relocated it to another country. Therefore, I think the government should not accept the current Taliban rule but look to the future and make a decision.
Also, if the Taliban builds a center for terrorists, the government should pay attention to the steps to be taken to prevent it. The government will have to take some steps to control everything such as travel to that country.
We also need to focus on this threat. We must also accept whether we are going to accept this Taliban organization that destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues and take action to re-establish the terrorism that we have eradicated from this region.