Vice President of Afghanistan, Amrullah Saleh warns Pakistan that it could pay a heavy price if it continues to provide support to Taliban, reports Asian Lite News
First Vice President of Afghanistan, Amrullah Saleh has said that the Taliban are guided by special units of the Pakistani army.
Saleh wrote on his Facebook page that from the organizational point of view, the Taliban are divided into three sections, the first of which is guided by Pakistan’s special anti-terrorist cells.
In part of this article, he wrote: “From an organizational point of view, the strength of the enemy is divided into three parts — The first section deals with trained personnel directly guided by special Pakistani counter-insurgency units/nuclei from Peshawar-Quetta and elsewhere. Google communication tools and maps make it very easy. The second part is the local parts that work under the name of the military commission, and they do not play many roles except by extorting money from the people and imposing parties on the local people. The third part is the recent recruits and summonses who have no morals.”
The withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan created a very immediate vacuum, “but that government forces were in order,” said Saleh.
Further, he added that if the Taliban gain more land, they will still not be able to rule the country, and the people are suffering in areas under Taliban control.
Moreover, some members of the House of Representatives said that men and women must take up arms and stand up for the preservation of the system and the achievements of the past decades.
Mir Rahman Rahmani, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said, “I ask all respected lawyers to stand bravely by your people and fight the enemy for your material and spiritual possessions.”
“Let’s unite and stand by the security forces,” said Reyhaneh Azad, a Daikundi MP.
The Members of Parliament accused the Taliban of violating the human rights of the people in a number of districts they have just reached.
“Why are the UN, human rights organizations, silent on the Afghan issue?” said Gul Ahmad Nourzad, a Nimroz MP.
Earlier, Taliban attacks on several security outposts in Ghazni city were pushed back on Sunday morning.
Afghan security force members take part in a military operation in Chahar Dara district of Kunduz province, Afghanistan, Jan. 16, 2018. The Kunduz province, as well as neighboring Baghlan and Takhar provinces, have been the hotbeds of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to attack the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region. (Xinhua/Ajmal Kakar/IANS)
Last month, Saleh has warned Pakistan that if it continues to provide support to Taliban then it has to pay a “very high price”.
“Pakistan-as a host of the Taliban since group’s foundation could play a significant role in the peace process, and therefore become a reliable partner of the Afghan nation,” Saleh said.
According to a recent UN report, at least a dozen different militant groups are now active in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, with at least 6,500 Pakistani nationals reportedly involved.
This statement comes in response to the Afghan foreign ministry’s remarks about TTP’s presence on Afghan territory…reports Asian Lite News
Amid the recent surge in violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan has said that some 5,000 terrorists belonging to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were posing a threat to its security from their “sanctuaries” in the neighbouring country.
“The assertions of the Afghan side are contrary to facts on ground and various reports of the UN, which also corroborate the presence and activities of over 5000-strong TTP in Afghanistan,” the Pakistan Foreign Office was quoted by Dawn newspaper.
It further claimed that the TTP has over the past few years launched several gruesome terrorist attacks inside Pakistan using Afghan soil without any retribution from its hosts.
This statement comes in response to the Afghan foreign ministry’s remarks about TTP’s presence on Afghan territory. On Sunday, the Ashraf Ghani government denied the presence of the terrorist group in Afghanistan after Pakistan expressed apprehensions regarding a possible spillover of TTP.
“According to the national security policy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, this movement along with other terrorist groups is recognized as the enemy of peace, stability, and prosperity in Afghanistan and the region, and the Afghan government fights against this terrorist outfit like any other terrorist group without discrimination,” the Afghan foreign ministry said.
The statement said that Afghanistan has consistently stressed upon implementation of UNSC resolutions and the Doha agreement which calls on the Taliban to cut ties with regional and international terrorist groups including the TTP.
“In order to establish lasting peace in Afghanistan and to ensure stability and prosperity in the region, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls on all countries, especially Pakistan, to treat all terrorist outfits equally and without discrimination, and not allow these closely linked and organized groups to collude with each other to jeopardize the security and stability of our countries,” the statement added.
Earlier this month, Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid had said that Islamabad is expecting that the Taliban will not allow terrorist groups like TTP to carry out activities against Pakistan.
Pakistan has finished over 80 per cent of the Durand Line fencing along with Afghanistan despite facing backlash from the people on both sides of the line. Despite the absence of a concrete agreement with the Afghan government, the Pakistan government has been declaring the Durand Line as an official border. (ANI)
Afghan leaders, along with US military commanders, have attributed much of the insurgency’s power and longevity either directly or indirectly to Pakistani support, reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan’s security establishment, fearful of strategic encirclement by India, apparently continues to view the Afghan Taliban as a relatively friendly and reliably anti-India element in Afghanistan, as per a brief prepared by the US Congressional Research Service.
The document on US policy in Afghanistan says Pakistan’s security services maintain ties to Afghan insurgent groups, most notably the Haqqani Network.
Afghan leaders, along with US military commanders, have attributed much of the insurgency’s power and longevity either directly or indirectly to Pakistani support.
Despite official Pakistani leadership’s statements to the contrary, Islamabad may view a weak and destabilized Afghanistan as preferable to a strong, unified Afghan state (particularly one led by an ethnic Pashtun-dominated government in Kabul; Pakistan has a large and restive Pashtun minority), the brief said.
India slams Pakistan for its human rights situation
Afghanistan-Pakistan relations are further complicated by the presence of over one million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, as well as a long-running and ethnically tinged dispute over their shared 1,600-mile border.
“Pakistan’s security establishment, fearful of strategic encirclement by India, apparently continues to view the Afghan Taliban as a relatively friendly and reliably anti-India element in Afghanistan. India’s diplomatic and commercial presence in Afghanistan—and US rhetorical support for it—exacerbates Pakistani fears of encirclement. India has been the largest regional contributor to Afghan reconstruction, but New Delhi has not shown an inclination to pursue a deeper defense relationship with Kabul,” the brief said.
Afghanistan maintains mostly cordial ties with its other neighbours, notably the post-Soviet states of Central Asia, whose role in Afghanistan has been relatively limited but could increase.
Islamic State
In the past two years, multiple US commanders have warned of increased levels of support for the Taliban from Russia and Iran, both of which have cited the Islamic State affiliate presence in Afghanistan to justify their activities. Both were reported in 2020 to have been more directly involved, including possibly supporting Taliban attacks against US forces.
Both nations were opposed to the Taliban government of the late 1990s, but reportedly see the Taliban as a useful point of leverage vis-à-vis the United States. Afghanistan may also represent a growing priority for China in the context of broader Chinese aspirations in Asia and globally, it added.
“Afghan officials have sought to downplay the impact of the US military withdrawal on their own forces’ capabilities, but some official US assessments indicate that the withdrawal could lead to Taliban gains on the battlefield. By many measures, the Taliban are in a stronger position now than at any point since 2001, controlling as much as half of the country, though many once-public US government metrics related to the conflict have been classified or are no longer produced”, the brief said.
Future changes in political arrangements and/or in the security environment may in turn influence US policymakers’ consideration of future levels and conditions of development assistance. It is unclear to what extent, if at all, the prospect of continued US assistance to Afghanistan (which remains one of the world’s poorest countries) represents leverage over the Taliban, it added.
Taliban
The Wall Street Journal reported that the US intelligence community concluded last week that the government of Afghanistan could collapse as soon as six months after the American military withdrawal from the country is completed.
American intelligence agencies revised their previously more optimistic estimates as the Taliban swept through northern Afghanistan last week, seizing dozens of districts and surrounding major cities. Afghan security forces frequently surrendered without a fight, leaving their Humvees and other American-supplied equipment to the insurgents, the report said.
The new assessment of the overall US intelligence community, which hasn’t been previously reported, has now aligned more closely with the analysis that had been generated by the US military. The military has already withdrawn more than half of its 3,500 troops and its equipment, with the rest due to be out by Sept. 11.
On Wednesday, Taliban fighters were battling government troops inside the northern city of Kunduz after occupying the main border crossing with Tajikistan the previous day and reaching the outskirts of northern Afghanistan’s main hub, Mazar-e-Sharif. Tajikistan’s border service said 134 Afghan troops at the crossing were granted refuge while some 100 others were killed or captured by the Taliban.
Overall, the Taliban’s lightning offensive in northern Afghanistan resulted in the fall of dozens of districts over the past week, putting much of the countryside under insurgent control. Local politicians and tribal elders negotiated a series of surrender agreements with government forces. Often unpaid for months, these troops left convoys of armored vehicles and stockpiles of weaponry, including artillery pieces, mortars and heavy machine guns, in exchange for Taliban guarantees of safe passage, the report said.
When Taliban were invited to talks with Afghan government representatives in Moscow, India had sent retired diplomats as observers, rather than officials in the delegation, reports Asian Lite News
An Indian delegation made a “quiet visit” to the Gulf nation of Qatar to meet with the Taliban, a senior Qatari government official stated on Monday.
During a webinar, Qatar’s special envoy for counterterrorism and mediation of conflict resolution Mutlaq bin Majed Al Qahtani revealed this information in the first official acknowledgment of links between India and the Afghan insurgent group, Taliban.
There has been no response from the Indian government following the significant remarks by the Qatari government official.
In answer to a question from a mediaperson about role of India in the stalled Afghan peace process, Al Qahtani stated that it was a “very complicated question”.
“Afghanistan soil should not become a proxy for any countries. Yes, it is in the interest of Pakistan to have a more stable Afghanistan. It is in the interest of India to have a more stable Afghanistan. We understand Pakistan is a neighbouring country. India is the country that has done a lot of economically and of course they want Pakistan to be more peaceful and stable,” he said.
The Qatari official then noted that New Delhi has also reached out to Taliban’s political office in Doha. “I understand that there has been quiet visit by Indian officials from India to speak with the Taliban. Why? Because not everyone is believing that Taliban will dominate and take over, but because the Taliban is a key component of future Afghanistan. So, I see the reason of having a dialogue or talks and reaching out to all parties in Afghanistan,” he stated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23gl5hPXhaA
He cautioned that since it was a “critical stage” in the Afghan peace process, if any meeting is taking place, “it should be for a main reason to encourage the parties to solve their differences by peaceful means”.
India’s official policy has been to not recognise the Taliban in any way, with the Afghan government accorded the recognition as the only legitimate stakeholder in the war-ravaged country.
When Taliban were invited to talks with Afghan government representatives in Moscow, India had sent retired diplomats as observers, rather than officials in the delegation.
During the official signing of the Doha agreement last year, India’s ambassador to Qatar had attended the ceremony. When the intra-Afghan talks began in September 2020, India sent a senior diplomat to Doha, while Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar attended through video link.
Last week, during his visit to Kenya and Kuwait, Jaishankar transited twice through Qatar. India stated that he had met with the Qatari leadership and US Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha.
This is the second time that an official of a Gulf kingdom has mentioned an Indian diplomatic initiative which is largely kept under wrap by New Delhi.
In April, UAE’s ambassador to the US, Yousef Al Otaiba, stated that the Gulf nation played a role “in bringing Kashmir escalation down and created a ceasefire, hopefully ultimately leading to restoring diplomats and getting the relationship back to a healthy level”.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani inspecting the guard of honor in Islamabad. (XinhuaPIDIAN
Islamabad’s shift became apparent a fortnight ago when the security establishment renewed its efforts to push the Taliban to rejoin peace talks with Ghani’s government…reports Asian Lite News
In a strategic shift, Islamabad no longer favours a Taliban total victory in Afghanistan as it seeks to balance its US and China relations.
Salman Rafi Sheikh, writing in Asia Times said that Pakistan’s security establishment appears to see more geopolitical upside to an inclusive rather than Taliban-dominated Afghan government in Kabul when US troops fully withdraw by September 11.
This marks a distinct flip of Pakistan’s previous position in favour of a Taliban total win over Kabul, one that violently ousts Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government and establishes a new Islamic emirate to the exclusion of non-Taliban and non-Pashtun groups.
Pakistan’s security establishment believes that a total Taliban victory would galvanize Pakistan-based, Taliban-aligned groups to pursue similar objectives through military means, potentially leading to new instability including in traditional hotbed areas along the Afghan border.
Like the Taliban, Pakistan authorities are known to view dimly Ghani’s elected government, both as a US-backed puppet regime and one that is dangerously close to rival India, reported Asia Times.
Islamabad’s shift became apparent a fortnight ago when the security establishment renewed its efforts to push the Taliban to rejoin peace talks with Ghani’s government. Informed sources say the Taliban was told in clear terms that not doing so could invite “tough action” from Pakistan.
In a meeting between Pakistan’s top security officials and Afghan Taliban representatives on April 28 in Istanbul, Turkey, the latter was reportedly given an “enough is enough” message, with Pakistan emphasizing that the Taliban’s seizure of power through the sheer use of force and violence would not be viable, said Sheikh.
The meeting and its messaging were reported widely in Pakistani media and subsequently not denied by either side.
Meanwhile, Taliban has ramped up attacks as the US begins its withdrawal from government installations in the country, raising fears it plans to rout national forces and ignore any settlement reached via multi-party talks.
While pushing the Taliban to the negotiating table, Pakistan is also quickly redefining its relations with Kabul. Importantly, Pakistan’s recalibration is being led by the military establishment, which since the 1980s has been the main player in Afghanistan’s long-running civil wars, reported Asia Times.
Taliban
Led by Chief of Army Staff Qamar Bajwa, Pakistan’s top brass has since 2018 conducted its own independent brand of “military diplomacy” under Prime Minister Imran Khan’s hybrid civil-military regime.
On May 10, Bajwa travelled to Kabul where he met Ghani and assured him of Pakistan’s support for an inclusive political system in Afghanistan after the US withdraws the last of its troops in September.
On May 12, Ghani made an unusual public statement claiming that Pakistan is no longer in favour of helping to re-establish a Taliban-led Islamic emirate, as existed under its hard-line rule between 1996 and 2001.
“Pakistan’s army, in utter clarity, announced that the revival of Islamic emirate is not in Pakistan’s national interest,” Ghani said in a televised speech after Eid Al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of Ramzan.
While Ghani’s remarks have not been refuted by Islamabad or Pakistan’s top brass, it is not yet official, publicly announced policy. But Pakistan clearly has its own compelling reasons to shift its previous course vis-a-vis the Taliban and Ghani, reiterated Sheikh.
Meanwhile, Afghan Taliban that denies any direct linkage with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organization of radical groups active on the border and affiliated with al-Qaeda, recent terror attacks in Pakistan have sparked fears of an Islamic militancy revival.
Ashraf-Ghani
Security officials quoted in Pakistani media reports have recently said that the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan-based Taliban groups are “two faces of the same coin”, said Sheikh.
On April 22, only days before Pakistani officials’ meeting with the Taliban in Istanbul, a car-bomb attack on a five-star hotel in Quetta killed at least four and injured 15 others.
In another attack on April 29, the day after the same meeting, another motorcycle bomb attack hit Quetta, killing a policeman and injuring several others.
While TTP claimed both attacks, it is important to note that Chinese interests were likely targeted in the April 22 attack.
Reports of the presence of China’s ambassador in the hotel were quickly denied by Pakistani officials, but China’s state media reported that the militant group involved in the attack may have wanted to create a bigger noise by targeting Chinese officials.
The TTP’s revival in Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban were based for years after the US invasion (known as the “Quetta Shura”), represents a major security headache for Islamabad at a time China seeks to build infrastructure in the volatile region, including at the Gwadar port.
That potent threat, some suggest, is driving Pakistan to redefine its relations with Kabul and rethink its post-US troop withdrawal position in Afghanistan, said Sheikh.
US troops in Afghanistan.
By leveraging its influence over the Taliban, Pakistan appears to be bargaining with Kabul to sever its support for groups like the TTP and ideally also uproot India’s presence in Afghanistan, reported Asia Times.
Pakistan’s apparent new emphasis on an “inclusive” system in Afghanistan also dovetails with China’s position on US withdrawal and the imperative of establishing peace through an internally agreed political settlement. In a surprising public statement, China’s foreign ministry recently chided the US for making what it sees as an overly hasty Afghan retreat.
Beijing is wary of the civil war scenarios in post-withdrawal Afghanistan, including the potential for militant activity to spill over into China’s sensitive Xinjiang province, where it stands accused of persecuting the region’s ethnic Uyghur Muslim minority in “vocational” camps.
Moreover, Pakistan still highly values its relations with China despite disputes over debts and stalled building on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a USD 60 billion Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The last thing Islamabad wants is for post-withdrawal chaos in Afghanistan to jeopardize both the CPEC and broader BRI in the region. China has reportedly dangled big-ticket BRI-related investments over the Taliban, reported Asia Times.
At the same time, Pakistan seems also to be trying to communicate with the US by delivering an “enough is enough” message to the Taliban. So far, the Biden administration has failed to engage with Khan’s government, which Washington likely views as too close to China.
Moreover, Pakistan’s access to International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial assistance is known to be closely tied to how Washington views Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan’s conflict.
While Pakistan has clearly not renounced its long-time support for the Taliban, it is now repositioning itself in Afghanistan in ways that aim to better balance between the US and China while at the same time pushing to diminish and ideally purge India’s influence. (ANI)
Pakistan’s military has been fighting back against the terrorists linked to Pakistan Taliban…reports Asian Lite News
The ongoing fighting between the Pakistan government and the Taliban in northwest Pakistan has forced many residents to flee from their homes and some of them are living in caves to escape the violence.
“They live here not out of choice, but necessity in the mountains bordered with Afghanistan. Militants group are active, the caves provide a degree of safety, if not comfort,” said Jonathan Crane, reporting for DW News Agency.
“These caves were once empty, full of dust. We cleared them out after the security situation changed. The times when it was peaceful is not coming back. There was peace and freedom and everything was ok. There were no problems. Right now is a killing time,” said one of the cave-dwellers.
Pakistan’s military has been fighting back against the terrorists linked to Pakistan Taliban. The offensive which began in 2014 forced many to flee their home and into poverty. For many, caves were only the options, reported DW News Agency.
“We have no source of income. Our fathers and grandfathers also lived this life. They used to live this way. We have to because we have nowhere else to live,” said a resident.
While reporting from these caves, Jonathan Crane came across a man who was sick and had no one to take care of him.
“I have a burning sensation in my hands and feet. It’s itching, I can’t touch them,” said the sick man.
The caves contain a mosque, allowing the locals to worship. These caves and mosques are 3-5 centuries old.
“This place is known as Randapal and this is called the Randapal mosque,” said the Maulvi of the mosque. (ANI)
Ghani mentioned that the parties would have to discuss and decide on a transitional administration, which would have a short tenure…reports Asian Lite News
Stressing that every international stakeholder and Afghan people demands a “sovereign, Islamic, democratic, united, neutral” and unified Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani warned that “if the Taliban refuse to negotiate, they will be choosing the peace of the grave”.
Citing an article shared by Foreign Policy, Khaama Press News Agency reported Ghani saying that an Islamic system demanded by the Taliban already exists in Afghanistan and that they should demonstrate their desired end state with “clarity and detail”.
He further said that peace negotiations require a credible and neutral mediator, which the Doha talks lack and the best option for this role would be United Nations.
“The first topics of negotiation must be reaching the desired end state and putting in place a comprehensive cease-fire to bring peace and respite to the daily lives of the Afghan people and to restore credibility and faith in the peacemaking process. Because cease-fires established during peace negotiations often fall apart, however, it is critical that we have international monitoring,” he said.
Ghani mentioned that the parties would have to discuss and decide on a transitional administration, which would have a short tenure. He announced that in such an election, he would not run for office and expressed willingness to resign if his successor had a mandate for peace.
Intra-Afghan Talks would face difficult challenges on whether and how the Taliban would sever ties with Pakistan, the Khaama Press reported.
“It is crucial that the Afghan government and the Taliban also agree on an approach against the Islamic State (or ISIS), al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups and that our agreement include a framework for counterterrorism that secures guarantees of support from other countries in the region and from international organizations”, Ghani said in his article in Foreign Policy.
U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad during the talks in Doha
According to the Afghan President, a disrupted and disorderly” transition of power could menace command and control of security sectors in the country. He also noted that “uncertainty” may persuade Afghans to migrate, which could lead to another refugee crisis.
He further predicted that the Taliban will show no further ensuing interest in making a political deal and “will instead opt for continued military aggression”, Khaama Press reported.
Speaking on Pakistan, he said that the neighbouring country had miscalculated to threaten the Afghan peace process.
He remarked that Islamabad would be looking for an enmity with Afghanistan and would be deprived of enormous economical benefits that peace and regional connectivity offers if they choose to continue facilitating Taliban and other terrorist organisations.
“Pakistan would become an international pariah, as it would be left with no leverage in the aftermath of the U.S. troop withdrawal. The Pakistani government miscalculated in its response to the United States’ plan of action for Afghanistan and the region, but it is not too late for Islamabad to emerge as a partner and stakeholder in an orderly peace process,” he said in his article.
“The withdrawal of U.S. troops is an opportunity to get us closer to that end state, but only if all Afghans and their international partners commit to a clear path forward and stay the course,” Ghani concluded his remarks.
This statement comes as Washington formally started their drawdown from the war-torn country on May 1.
Biden announced earlier this month the decision to withdraw troops from the country starting on that May 1 deadline, with the aim of completely withdrawing from Afghanistan by September 11, which would mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that sparked the war in Afghanistan, the longest conflict in American history.
Earlier this year, Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry said that despite the Taliban’s claim that it seeks to maintain peace in the country, the terror outfit still maintains close ties to the terrorist outfit Pakistani Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. (ANI)
Falcon is not hearing the falconer. Taliban, the creation of the Pakistan army and the ISI, ignore the Rawalpindi request to join the Afghan peace talks in Istanbul …. Writes Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha
Pakistan is not happy with the Taliban. A report by prominent Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir published in The News, a daily newspaper, says that Pakistani security officials have approached the Afghan Taliban leadership in Doha and made it very clear to them that their refusal to participate in the Istanbul Conference was a big blow to the Afghan Peace Process and if they do not show some flexibility they will have to face the consequences.
“Enough is enough” message has been given to the Talibani leadership and the same message was conveyed to the Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani by the Pakistani delegation last week in Kabul.
According to Pakistani sources, the news has emanated from an “off the record” briefing by Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa at an “Iftar” party hosted by him for a bunch of “trusted” media persons at the military headquarters in Rawalpindi. Bajwa shared a lot of “information” with them but asked the journalists not to attribute the news to army sources.
The report says that the Taliban thinks that India started engaging with Pakistan recently just because India does not want Islamabad to object to its new role in Afghanistan.
This information was “leaked” by the Pakistani army chief Bajwa at a time when a lot of key changes are taking place in Afghanistan, which have crucial bearing on Pakistan’s national security and strategic interests in the long run.
Bajwa is worried because he does not trust the Taliban and he would not like them moving closer to India. Pakistani security agencies found some links between Afghan Taliban and groups related to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), “They are two faces of the same coin.” The PTT is staunchly opposed to the Pakistani establishment.
The India factor
Bajwa saw the ground situation changing last year when US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said that India should discuss its concerns on terrorism directly with the Taliban. The US envoy had discussed how India could play a “more active role” in the Afghan reconciliation process during his talks in Delhi.
Ashraf-Ghani
Khalilzad told Indian media that it is for India to decide its role, but engagement between India and all the key players in Afghanistan, not only in terms of the government but also in terms of political forces, society and the Afghan body politic, is appropriate given India’s regional and global position. India is an important force in Afghanistan and it would be appropriate for the India-Taliban engagement to take place.
This was followed by a Taliban statement saying the group would like to have a positive relationship with India and welcomed New Delhi’s cooperation in Afghanistan. The Taliban also said that it does not support Pakistan’s ‘holy war’ against India and that Kashmir was India’s internal matter.
Taliban’s spokesperson Mohammad Suhail Shaheen told an Indian audience through a webinar speech last year in April, that the group wants to build ties with India and even was willing to enact a law against foreign terror groups conducting operations against any other country.
“Linking the issue of Kashmir with that of Afghanistan by some parties will not aid in improving the crisis at hand because the issue of Afghanistan is not related.
Pakistan’s military establishment feels that Taliban may be looking for an opportunity to break away from Pakistan stranglehold to chart out an independent path by taking on board all sections of Afghan society for a futuristic settlement to the Afghan problem.
The current Taliban leadership is known to be based in Doha. Mullah Baradar, the Taliban chief negotiator in Qatar was held by Pakistan for close to 10 years. Similarly, many other senior leaders would want to break free. In the past Taliban leaders have shown an inclination to chalk out an independent path without the baggage of Pakistani patronage leading to factional fights.
While some experts believe that Taliban wants to change its image which has been that of a pawn of Pakistan, others believe that it is merely a ploy by the Taliban to project a better image.
Afghanistan was the focus at the Heart of Asia Conference held in Tajikistan on 30 March and India was represented by the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said, “India has been supportive of all the efforts being made to accelerate the dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban, including intra-Afghan negotiations”. He also declared India’s support for a regional process to be convened under the aegis of the United Nations.
According to experts, India wants to safeguard its interests and investments in Afghanistan which run into billions. This calls for good relations with the upcoming leadership in Kabul, irrespective of who rules. This would also help to avert any future threats from its economic and political foes, both Islamabad and Beijing.
India’s soft power is likely to have some influence over the Afghan government. If the Taliban comes to power, it may consider a positive political approach to New Delhi as India can play an important role in the development of Afghanistan.
