Pakistan says US Afghan troop withdrawal is ‘logical conclusion’

Islamabad says ongoing foreign military presence would not have yielded different outcome as Taliban takes Kabul.

Pakistan says the United States’ decision to remain committed to a full troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, despite the Afghan Taliban’s lightning takeover of the country, is a “logical conclusion” to the Afghan conflict, as thousands of Afghans flooded into Pakistan at a southern border crossing. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan met the country’s top military and civilian leadership at a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday. The NSC, which includes Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and intelligence head Lieutenant-General Faiz Hameed, said Pakistan called on all Afghan parties to respect human rights and ensure that Afghan soil was not used against other countries.