Chinese envoy and Jaish commander separately call on Taliban leadership
While the Chinese envoy is said to have discussed the reconstruction of Afghanistan, Jaish top commander Mufti Rauf Azhar came to pay obeisance to the leaders of fellow Deobandi terrorist group for conquering Kabul.
Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu and Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief operational commander Mufti Abdul Rauf Azhar are separately said to have met the Taliban leadership in Kandahar on Thursday to congratulate the Sunni Pashtun Islamists for taking over Afghanistan. Both Mullah Baradar, said to be the front-runner as the Taliban candidate for President of Afghanistan, and Mullah Yaqoob, the son of Mullah Omar and deputy leader of Taliban, are in Kandahar.
While ambassador Wang met his Pakistani counterpart on Wednesday to closely cooperate on the Afghan issue, he is understood to have met Mullah Baradar in Kandahar to offer Beijing’s help in the reconstruction of the Islamist Taliban-ruled country. China is not only pleased with the humiliation of the US at the hands of the Taliban but is also looking to sell the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) and exploit Afghan reserves of lithium and copper in the name of reconstruction. The larger Chinese game-plan is to reach the Central Asian Republics via Afghanistan for evacuation of gas and mineral resources.