Leaked documents have revealed how officials of Canadian government were linked with the Taliban since the fall of Afghanistan in August 2021. The officials of the Canadian government, the documents revealed, had held at least 13 meetings with representatives of the Taliban in Qatar.
The documents obtained by CBC News through access to information law, revealed that David Sproule, Canada’s senior official for Afghanistan, in collaboration with some officials of the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and representatives of allied countries, have been putting pressure on the Taliban to extend the right to education to women, be committed to fighting terrorism and granting safe passage to Afghans who want to leave the country.
It was revealed that Canada refrained from providing regular information on its diplomatic relations with government officials of Afghanistan as it does with foreign affairs departments in the U.S. and Pakistan,
The Global Affairs department had acknowledged that the senior official has been engaging in informal talks with the Taliban and would continue to put pressures on the Taliban to respect human rights of citizens.
The documents were identified to be mostly emails Sproule sent to his GAC colleagues. The documents revealed that the Taliban also made requests from Canada and other countries. The Taliban refuted any threat to Afghans trying to leave the country.
— not long after it took over — the Taliban had at a meeting on October 12, 2021, requested representatives of foreign governments to reopen their embassies in Kabul.
A note written by Sproule to his colleagues, revealed that “Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister at the time, Amir Khan Muttaqi, also asked those governments to lift their sanctions and claimed his government was inclusive because it included ethnic minority representation and “women in government have not been fired.”
Source: CBC News