Mumbai: Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday that the speed with which the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan has surprised the security establishment. Describing the Taliban as “the same”, Rawat said that the Indian security set-up is prepared to deal with the side-effects of the Taliban takeover in India.
Speaking at an ORF event – ‘The India-US Partnership: Securing the 21st Century’, Rawat said that the events in Afghanistan were anticipated.
Rawat said, “The news and from there ex-pats reports are telling us what kind of activities the Taliban is involved in. All that has happened is that the partners have now changed. It’s the same Taliban with different partners,” Rawat said in New Delhi.
Rawat said the move was expected a few months ago, but the Taliban have now captured Kabul, the same group that existed 20 years ago.
“We were concerned about how terrorist activity from Afghanistan could overflow into India and so to that extent our contingency planning had been ongoing and we’re prepared for that… Everything that has happened was something that had been anticipated, only the timelines have changed. From the Indian perspective, we were anticipating the Taliban takeover of #Afghanistan,” Rawat further said.
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