Malala And Greta Thunberg: Two Global Icons Spurned In Their Own Countries – OpEd

 October 27, 2022  Eurasia Review 

By Raza Shahani

Two teenage girls, Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan and Greta Thunberg from Sweden, swiftly came under the global spotlight due to their life-risking campaigns for the girl’s education and the climate change – two noble causes –, respectively. Within the few years of their campaigns, they have succeeded in magnetizing millions to their causes across the world. Thus, they have emerged as the powerful voices echoing on the streets, in the legislative houses and on the international forums world over. However, unfortunately, they are spurned in their own countries, by their own people. 

In fact, the Taliban rank and file had escaped to Pakistan in the face of the US attack on Afghanistan in 2001. The Taliban foot-soldiers had gathered in the Af-Pak tribal areas on the Pakistani side. Plus, they kept crossing Af-Pak border back into Afghanistan to attack the US-led coalition forces. This embarrassed the US. The US demanded the Pakistani government to operate against the Taliban gangs. Pakistan succumbed to the US pressure and conducted cleansing operations in 2002. The Taliban retaliated against the Pakistani government. Besides, in the process, the Pakistani Taliban, who used to support the Afghan Taliban against the US, banded together and formed the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in 2007.

Accordingly, the TTP envisioned overthrowing Pakistani government, to establish caliphate in Pakistan and to institute the Islamic laws. To attain its agenda, the TTP began fighting the Pakistani forces in the Federally Administrative Areas of Pakistan, especially made Sawat Valley the center of its operations. The Taliban demolished state installations, mainly girls’ schools and the hospitals. They banned girls’ education, entertainment activities, and for that matter forbidden women’s walking out of home. 

At this time of gloom, Malala Yousafzai, an 11-year-old girl, came out, raised the voice against the Taliban’s demolishing of schools and the other brutalities. Moreover, she was banished to a far-flung area as an internally displaced person in the face of the state forces’ operations against the Taliban militants in her home town. Thus, within a few years, she became a powerful advocate of education, especially of the female education in a region the Taliban swept through. Unfortunately, on Oct 9, 2012, at the tender age of 14, the Taliban gang singled out Malala on a school bus back to her home from the school and shot two bullets in her head. 

In fact, even before she was shot, Malala had already assumed fame as an education activist across the globe. Thus, a global sympathy poured out just the news of the Taliban’s shooting her reached the masses. Resultantly, critically injured Malala was hurriedly flown to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, UK, to receive a perfect treatment. Luckily, Malala survived the Taliban bullets and returned to the normal life after an intense care at the hospital, perfect specialist treatment and many surgeries. But her sacrifice for the protection and the promotion of the girls’ education was duly paid. That incident of shooting her earned her international fame and soon she became a global icon. As a fact, she was revered with an opportunity to address the UN General Assembly in 2013, and she was rewarded with the most prestigious prize in the world – Noble Peace Prize – in 2014.

However, the majority of the Pakistanis, her country fellows, hate her. She is despised and labeled as the stooge of the West, especially of the US and Israel – a typical conspiratorial blame, ubiquitous in Pakistan. On the other hand, the Taliban, their sympathizer and admirer politicians, religious extremist influencers, religious extremist outfits, organizations and their fundamentalist religious philosophies are cherished in Pakistan.

The TTP – an umbrella militant organization – is a feral militant organization. It has wiped out thousands of the Pakistani army soldiers and the common innocent people – children, women and the old. Consequently, The Pakistani army and the air force have been fighting the Taliban militants since 2001, and up to date. However, the Pakistani military hasn’t been able to remove a single head of the Pakistani Taliban. It was the US drone strikes that have been eliminating the successive TTP leadership. The US drone strikes killed the Pakistani Taliban founder, Nek Mohammad and in a series Baitullah Mehsud, Hakimullah Mehsud and many others. Ironically, the Pakistani state, government and the society furiously react to the every US drone attack that kills the Taliban leaders. Needless to say, they had exuded rage upon the killing of the Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as well.

Moreover, Imran Khan who had spent his prime-age-time-period in Europe, America and the non-Muslim world with an entirely western life style unleashed the fury over the killing of the TTP chief, Hakimullah Mehsud who was the butcher. In addition, Khan asked his party government in Khaber Pakhtunkhuwa to pass a resolution the KP assembly to block NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. In a similar fashion, Afia Sidique, a Pakistan citizen who is serving an 86-year imprisonment upon her involvement in killing the NATO forces is held in high esteem and adored with the title “daughter of the nation.

Besides, when the government decided to negotiate the Taliban as they had already shot Malala and killed thousands, demolished schools, hospitals and the other infrastructure worth of millions, the Taliban nominated Khan the one member of their negotiating team. Although Khan had apologized the Taliban to be their team member, he ensured them that he would facilitate the dialogue. 

Even though Khan was an aggressively pro-Taliban politician, and the society feared the Taliban most yet he was elected the prime minister in 2018 general elections. Though the Pakistan National Assembly ousted Khan through the vote of no-confidence before he completed his full tenure, he is the most popular politician in Pakistan and is one the top influential in the Muslim world. However, Malala, a noble laureate, can’t move freely in Pakistan.

In fact, like Malala, Greta Thunberg is also a global figure. She is a teenage Swedish girl. She is a climate activist. Her climate campaign has aroused millions to protect the Earth mother. In 2019, she was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize. However, Greta too, like Malala, is disowned in her own country. 

Sweden is one of the most democratic, progressive and happiest country in the world. In Sweden, around half a dozen political parties contested the 2022 elections. One of the contestant parties was the Green Party of Sweden, which could secure only 18 seats in the 349 member house. The Green party participated in the last elections with the manifesto promising a clean and green Sweden, and the Europe. However, the results of the elections displayed the surge in the vote percentage for an extremist and anti-migrant party. Thus, as Malala in Pakistan, Greta’s philosophy was defeated in her own country, by her own people. 

The societies and the states the usurping communities, classes, groups, outfits and the individuals preponderate and rule hate the truth and the reality. They monopolize the state and the state resources. Since the state resources use to be on their hand, they propagate their usurping ideas, narratives and information effectively compared to any other revisionist socio-political group or individual. In this situation, the resistant socio-political groups and their ideas, narratives and information are suppressed at the state level and loathed in the society. Thus, in these states and the societies the truth is a despicable thing and the fake and the lies are sacralised.

Raza Shahani Teaches at the Department of Pakistan Studies, Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan

AFGHANISTAN

The lethal troika

The TTP intends to replicate in Pakistan what the Taliban did in Afghanistan.

Tariq Parvez 

DAWN

Published May 11, 2024

MANY factors were responsible for the defeat of the erstwhile Soviet Union and then the US in Afghanistan. A common factor was the existence of a combination of extremely resilient militant groups resisting both superpowers. This combination consisted of three categories of militants: local Afghan militants resisting foreign invaders; Pakistani militants crossing over to help their Afghan brethren; and thousands of mujahideen from various countries, particularly in the Middle East, participating in the Afghan jihad. With some variations in their composition, role and external supporters, they fought together against the US and USSR for 30 years, forcing them to withdraw. Alarmingly, after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, this Afghanistan-based lethal troika now targets Pakistan.

The situation necessitates a fundamental shift in the terrorist threat assessment in Pakistan — from focusing exclusively on the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan to broadening the threat calculus to the troika of the TTP, Afghan Taliban, and Al Qaeda.

Concerning the nexus between the Taliban and TTP, the latest UN report on Afghanistan states that the Afghan government was supplying weapons, training facilities and regular financial packages to the TTP. Al Qaeda’s primary goal, after lying low in the region for many years, is to revive itself without annoying its Afghan hosts or attracting the West’s adverse attention.

In view of this, it seems to have opted to carry out its activities in Pakistan through the TTP, while staying below the international radar. The importance Al Qaeda gives to the TTP is evident in that it selected 15 of its commanders to assist the group conduct terrorist attacks in Pakistan. It also supplied armed fighters to the TTP in its attack in Chitral in September 2023, which killed four security officials. Al Qaeda’s camp in Kunar, headed by Hakim ul Masri, is responsible for training suicide bombers for the TTP.

The TTP, which has been the most lethal terrorist group in Pakistan over the last three years, is on the same page with the Taliban and Al Qaeda not only because of an ideological affinity and a shared history of fighting foreign invaders in Afghanistan, but also due to similar goals of Sharia enforcement in Pakistan.

The TTP intends to replicate in Pakistan what the Taliban did in Afghanistan.

There were reports of the TTP helping the other two members of the troika by killing Taliban members defecting to the rival Islamic State-Khorasan Province in Afghanistan. The basic point is that while the troika is united on targeting Pakistan, the members play different roles. The Taliban are likely to help TTP discreetly in Afghanistan by providing sanctuary, with Al Qaeda supporting both openly in Afghanistan through mentoring and in Pakistan through its sympathisers. With its edge, the TTP is likely to carry out ground attacks in Pakistan and lead a campaign to build up its narrative of violent extremism.

As far as the strategy and tactics to be adopted by the troika go, the TTP intends to replicate in Pakistan what the Taliban did in Afghanistan. In a recent interview to Khorasan Diary, TTP ameer Noor Wali Mehsud stated, “our jihad in Pakistan … has entered a decisive phase”. He went on to say ominously: “Pakistani security agencies have unjustly occupied our homeland” and “our goal is to liberate our homeland and implement the divine law”. In a nutshell, the TTP seems to be falling back on the two-point narrative of resistance in Afghanistan, ie, ‘liberation of homeland’ and ‘enforcement of divine laws’.

This brings us to the likely impact of the troika on the terrorist threat landscape in Pakistan. Since 2021, the number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan has been consistently increasing every year. This is likely to continue in 2024, with three possible changes. One, the number of Afghan nationals taking part in terrorist attacks in Pakistan may increase — we recall here the suicide bombing against military personnel in 2023 in Bannu by Afghans. Two, given its penchant for high-profile attacks, Al Qaeda may train the TTP to carry out such attacks. Three, given that the top Al Qaeda and Taliban instructors will train TTP members, the quality and sophistication of the attacks in 2024 are likely to be enhanced.

Another area likely to be impacted by the troika is infiltration. Earlier, in the 1990s, Al Qaeda infiltrated educational institutions such as Karachi and Punjab universities to recruit educated youth. These recruitment cells in universities may be reactivated.

Also, to stay abreast of latest government planning in counterterrorism, the TTP, like the Taliban did in Afghanistan, may attempt to infiltrate government departments, including intel agencies.

The third and most important dimension of infiltration is that of the military, which was carried out by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in the late 1990s. It may be pertinent to mention that the last attempted terrorist attack by Al Qaeda was in 2014 in Karachi, when a group of naval officers tried to hijack a navy frigate and crash into a US ship in the open seas.

Al Qaeda worked somewhat openly in Pakistan from the 1980s to 2001, and built up an elaborate network of civilian volunteers in many cities of Pakistan, who assisted in collecting funds, recruiting volunteers, and providing hideouts for the group. These sleeper cells might again be contacted by it and reactivated. Similarly, there were some Pakistani militant organisations of the 1980s, like the Harkatul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, etc, sympathetic to Al Qaeda and lying low these days. Al Qaeda may re-establish contact with them and get their support for the TTP.

Finally, both the Taliban and Al Qaeda are known for their high-quality propaganda campaign. The TTP media wing lacks that finesse. In the light of guidance from the Taliban and Al Qaeda, we are likely to witness a significant improvement in the quality of propaganda.

As Sun Tsu stated, “if you know your enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles”. Sadly, it seems that Pakistan is erring in assessing the collective capabilities of the TTP, supported by the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The writer is a former police officer who was Nacta’s first national coordinator.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2024

TALIBAN'S SHADOW

Touqir Hussain 

Published November 7, 2023 

PAKISTAN and Afghanistan have always had a complex relationship that has been mishandled by both sides. Each has expected the other to make up for the failure of its own policies, has sought solutions that were worse than the problem, and has become friendly with the other’s enemies. Pakistan needs a sound strategy to deal with a relationship that is critical to the two countries’ security, economic future and political stability.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have a shared but contentious history, overlapping identities, a disputed border, divided ethnicity and bifurcated tribes. These ingredients provided each with an opportunity to interfere in the other’s affairs, as well as incentives for ambitious policies. The two had also become dependent on external powers, subordinate to the latter’s security and strategic interests and victims of their wars. All this negatively impacted their domestic dynamics.

It puzzles Pakistanis that the Afghans are not grateful for all that they did for them. True, Afghanistan was liberated from Soviet occupation, and later, according to a former prime minister, it broke “the chains of slavery” that had tied it to another superpower. But what did the Afghans get on being ‘liberated’, a process in which Pakis­tan helped not once but twice? The Taliban.

The Taliban are no liberators except through a lens distorted by narrow nationalism, religious extremism, anti-Americanism and political opportunism. The reality is that under Taliban rule, the Afghans are undergoing prison-like restrictions. The treatment of women alone is a crime against humanity.

Only the Afghans can stabilise Afghanistan.

Contrary to what some Pakistanis think, the Afghan Taliban’s fight was not for the Afghans but for their own power and ideology that arose not from a conflict among the Afghans, but between Afghans and the Taliban.

It is true the Taliban had a following among the rural poor especially in Pakhtun areas — similar to how extremist religious elements appeal to many among Pakistan’s low-income groups. But would our educated population aspiring to democracy and progress like them to come to power? So why would Afghanistan’s educated favour the Taliban? Do they deserve or aspire to anything less?

For most Afghans, it was important that in the 20 years before the Taliban’s return, education and healthcare facilities had expanded, women’s rights, including work opportunities, had improved, and citizens had experienced political freedoms.

Yes, the elite were corrupt and primarily responsible for Afghanistan’s failure. But the Taliban were not the substitute. Nor can they be termed an entirely Afghan phenomenon. Only by acknowledging this and owning its share of the responsibility can Pakistan understand the true ramifications of the Taliban challenge.

The UN Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team has named several groups that helped the Taliban’s fight. Now again, they enjoy their protection in Afghanistan, as they did before 2001. The nexus among the Taliban and these ‘brothers in faith’ that include the TTP and other Pakistani militant groups lies at the heart of the terrorist threats Pakistan faces.

We cannot bank on the Taliban to act against them as this could cause their own disintegration. They are already fighting groups opposed to them including the National Resistance Front and transnational terrorist groups like the Islamic State-Khorasan. Any military action or economic pressure by us will cause further instability in Afghanistan.

The Taliban might be able to control Afghanistan but not dominate, much less stabilise, it. Given its fault lines, competitive geopolitics and regio­nal politics, and its conflict-prone int­ernal make-up, Afghanistan can’t be stable without a dedicated effort by Afghans and the global community. That won’t happen under the Taliban. Even China’s economic role would remain small.

What are the options? Pakistan can’t stabilise Afghanistan; only the Afghans can. But Pakistan must work with regional countries to avoid instability there. The Moscow Format Consultation is a good initiative. More important, though, are the steps Pakistan takes at home. It must launch an earnest campaign to curb the expanding influence of extremist groups. If Islamabad eventually weakens them, it would have undermined their ties with the Taliban and Afghanistan’s potential to harm us.

The Taliban’s Afghanistan won’t bring us economic or strategic benefits. A grand design thus is neither needed nor workable. Pakistan’s only realistic aim, for now, should be a narrowly focused working relationship, that avoids extreme measures, helps but not strengthens the Taliban, and promotes human rights especially women’s rights, ie, a short-term plan with a long-term view.

The writer, a former ambassador, is adjunct professor Georgetown University and Visiting Senior Research Fellow, National University of Singapore.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2023

What Does the Afghan Taliban Gain from Mediating the TTP-Islamabad Peace Talks?

August 26, 2022
Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler and Riza Kumar

Following two days of indirect peace talks hosted by the Afghan Taliban in Kabul in early June, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)—an umbrella group of more than a dozen distinct Pakistani Taliban factions first formed in 2007—declared an indefinite extension of a ceasefire with the Pakistani government. The ceasefire extension, the second in two months, is reportedly the longest in the terror group’s history.

However, the ceasefire has not been strictly observed. According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, TTP militants reportedly carried out 33 attacks which killed 34 people and injured 46 others in July, an increase of seven attacks compared to June. Islamabad, for its part, has been accused of continuing to target the TTP. In April, Pakistani war planes carried out a strike on the TPP in Afghanistan. On August 8, a roadside bomb exploded in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province, killing senior TTP leader Omar Khalid Khorasani and other senior militants Mufti Hassan Swati and Hafiz Dawlat Khan. The TTP claimed Pakistani intelligence agents were responsible for the attack.

The TTP and Islamabad have previously engaged in peace negotiations to no avail and the Taliban’s role in this process has not made the prospect of a long-term peace agreement much more promising. The Taliban have provided the TTP with a safe haven since coming to power one year ago and the TTP has been vocal in its allegiance to and admiration of the regime’s approach to governing. Following the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, the TTP was emboldened to violently reassert influence across Pakistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) that border Afghanistan. Additionally, senior Afghanistan Taliban cabinet members—particularly Minister of the Interior and Haqqani Network leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani—have demonstrated support for the TTP, insisting that Pakistan address the group’s “grievances.” This close connection was confirmed when the Haqqani Network acted as a mediator between the government of Pakistan and the TTP in earlier negotiations in 2021, as well as in the current talks.

In this ongoing round, the TTP has asked for Pakistani government forces to pull out of former tribal regions of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the release of TTP fighters in government custody, and the revocation of all legal cases against the terror group. The Pakistan government wants the TTP to eventually disband and to sever its ties with ISIS in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. In terms of the latter condition, the Taliban would significantly benefit from weakened ties between the TTP and ISIS given the terror group’s continued threat to Kabul.

In May 2022, the U.N. published a report stating that the TTP constitutes the largest component of foreign terrorist fighters in Afghanistan, with troops numbering approximately several thousand. Additionally, the Taliban and the TTP maintain deep historical and ethnic connections and strong affiliations with al-Qaeda. Although Pakistan provided the Taliban with decades of support during its years of struggle against the U.S. and Afghan government, since returning to power, the Taliban has frustrated their former benefactors and may now be reassessing their ambitions in the region.

Immediately upon returning to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban released 780 TTP prisoners, including the former deputy head, Molvi Faqir Muhammad. The released prisoners significantly boosted the TTP’s troop size but also provided the Taliban with scores of militarily skilled supporters. Given the increased number of high-casualty attacks by ISIS-K throughout Afghanistan, it is fair to presume the Taliban is incentivized to maintain TTP loyalty. The Afghan Taliban stands to benefit from any scenario that prevents the strengthening of ISIS-K, which has challenged the Taliban’s ability to govern and has severely compromised Afghanistan’s national security. However, the prospect of an actual peace agreement could potentially backfire, as some hardline TTP members might defect to ISIS-K. In fact, from the onset ISIS-K welcomed a significant number of former TTP fighters.

Aside from security concerns, the Taliban’s role as mediator may also be impacted by dire economic and environmental circumstances—as well as international skepticism of the regime’s credibility—which continue to plague Afghanistan. Afghanistan is facing severe economic struggles and drought, causing almost 23 million of its people to become dependent on humanitarian aid. If the Taliban can facilitate peace between enemies within the region, they may soften their international reputation and persuade the U.S. as well as other states and donors to unfreeze Afghan funds.

While the Taliban has taken on the role of a mediator in the peace talks, it is uncertain if the Taliban has been anything but self-serving in this process. Although it is unreasonable to assume TTP attacks will immediately cease following another peace agreement, given that various factions within the TTP see a ceasefire critically, it is critical to consider whether the Taliban will ever hold the TTP accountable for their continued violence. The TTP recently stated that it seeks real peace in Pakistan, and that it is neither anti-state nor working for anti-Pakistan powers. However, it is uncertain to what extent the group will cooperate with Islamabad when their ultimate goal is to replace the elected government of Pakistan with an emirate based on their interpretation of sharia. The first peace agreement between the TPP and the Pakistani government signed in May 2004 necessitated a ceasefire that only lasted 50 days, and others in 2006 and 2008 also failed to end ongoing extremist violence.

The Taliban’s unwillingness to crack down on the TTP demonstrates why their role as a negotiating partner is concerning for U.S. anti-terrorism efforts in the region and beyond. The Pakistani government, distracted by an internal political and economic crisis and a growing insurgency in its southern Baluchistan province, fueled by U.S. manufactured weapons flowing out of Afghanistan, may see current negotiations as it best short-term option, albeit not a long-term solution. Although few details of the negotiations have emerged, one thing is certain, the implications of the Taliban’s actions will extend far beyond South Asian regional security.

TALIBAN WAR ON PAKISTAN
Traders troubled after Taliban shut Afghan-Pakistan crossing


A Pakistani paramilitary soldier, left, and Taliban fighters stand guard on their respective sides, at a border crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan, in Torkham, in Khyber district, Pakistan, on Sept. 5, 2021. The main crossing on the Afghan-Pakistan border remained shut Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, for the third straight day, officials said, after Afghanistan's Taliban rulers earlier this week closed the key trade route and exchanged fire with Pakistani border guards. 

(AP Photo/Qazi Rauf, File)

RIAZ KHAN
Tue, February 21, 2023 

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The main crossing on the Afghan-Pakistan border remained shut Tuesday for the third straight day, officials said, after Afghanistan's Taliban rulers earlier this week closed the key trade route and exchanged fire with Pakistani border guards.

The closure has added to increasing tensions between the two neighboring countries and concerns for traders, for whom the Torkham crossing is a key commercial artery. Trucks carrying various items also travel to Central Asian countries from Pakistan, through Torkham crossing point and Afghanistan.

On the Pakistani side of the border, in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, many merchants watched their trucks on Tuesday, loaded with fresh produce that could soon spoil, and waited for the crossing to reopen.

The Taliban closed Torkham on Sunday, angered by Pakistan’s alleged refusal to allow Afghan patients and their caretakers to enter Pakistan for medical care without travel documents. On Monday, Taliban fighters and Pakistani guards exchanged fire. There was no word on casualties on either side.

According to Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, a director at the Pakistan-Afghanistan joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, nearly 7,00 trucks carrying various goods — including perishable fruit and vegetables — were stuck and lined up, waiting at the Pakistani side.

Hundreds of Pakistanis with valid travel documents were also waiting near Torkham for the crossing to reopen, he added. “It is causing problems for traders on both sides.”

There were also vehicles waiting on the other side of the border, in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, but the Taliban have not commented on the issue.

Siddiqullah Quraishi, the Taliban’s appointed official at the Nangahar’s information and culture department, said Pakistan has not been abiding by its “commitments, so the crossing point was shut down.” He did not elaborate but advised Afghans to avoid traveling to the crossing until further notice.

Closures, cross-border fire and shootouts are common along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Each side has in the past closed Torkham, and also the Chaman crossing in southwestern Pakistan, over various reasons.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were withdrawing from the country after 20 years of war. Like the rest of the world, Pakistan has so far not recognized Afghanistan’s Taliban government. The international community has been wary of the Taliban’s harsh measures, imposed since their takeover, especially in restricting the rights of women and minorities.

___

Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez in Islamabad contributed to this story.

As Pakistan deports refugees, tense Afghanistan ties come in sharp focus

Pakistan says most Afghans have left voluntarily, a claim rejected by Kabul which calls the Pakistani action ‘unilateral’ and ‘humiliating’.

An Afghan refugee carries a child as he prepares to depart for Afghanistan, at a holding centre in Landi Kotal, Pakistan

 [File: Farooq Naeem/AFP]

By Abid Hussain
Published On 7 Nov 2023

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s decision to expel more than 1.5 million allegedly undocumented Afghan refugees and migrants has once again triggered tensions with the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

Since October 31 when a government deadline for the refugees to leave Pakistan or face detention ended, more than 200,000 Afghans have crossed into Afghanistan, officials said, amid stringent criticism by Kabul.

“This is injustice, an injustice that cannot be ignored in any way. The forced expulsion of people is in conflict with all the norms of good neighbourliness,” Bilal Karimi, spokesperson for the Afghan government, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

“In the long term, there may be many negative effects on the relations and communications between the two countries.”

Pakistan says most Afghans have left voluntarily, a claim rejected by Kabul which has called the Pakistani action “unilateral” and “humiliating”.

“The expulsion of Afghan refugees in such a large volume and in such a humiliating manner, when winter is coming and the weather is getting colder, is a cruel and unfair decision,” Karimi said.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, tens of thousands of Afghans fled to Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of the country, and more came after the United States attacked the impoverished country following the 9/11 attacks.

More recently, between 600,000 and 800,000 Afghans are believed to have arrived in Pakistan after the Taliban assumed power in 2021.

According to the Pakistani government, there were about 4 million foreigners in the country before October 31, nearly 3.8 million of them Afghans. Of those, it says, only 2.2 million Afghans carry a government-approved document that makes them eligible to stay.

Islamabad blames the Afghan fighters and migrants for a surge in armed attacks inside Pakistan in recent years.

On October 3 when the decision to deport “illegal” refugees was announced, interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said of the 24 suicide bombings in the country this year, 14 were carried out by Afghan nationals.

At the centre of the deteriorating relations between the neighbouring nations is Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a banned armed group also referred to as the Pakistani Taliban for its ideological proximity to the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan.

Founded in 2007, the TTP says its goal is to impose its hardline interpretation of Islamic law over Pakistan.

The group has been accused of hundreds of deadly attacks after it ended a ceasefire agreement with the Pakistani government a year ago. On Saturday, it allegedly attacked a Pakistan Air Force base in Mianwali in Punjab province, damaging three grounded aircraft.

But most TTP attacks have mostly taken place in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, both of which share a long border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan says the TTP enjoys safe havens in Afghanistan and uses its soil to launch attacks against Pakistani security forces and installations. Afghan authorities have consistently denied the allegations, saying they have nothing to do with Pakistan’s internal security concerns.

Last week, Afghanistan’s interim Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund said Pakistan’s decision to expel refugees violated international laws. “You [Pakistan] are a neighbour, you should think about the future,” he said.

Akhund’s deputy Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai was more scathing in his response, warning Islamabad to “not force their hand to react over the move”.

“We expect Pakistan’s security forces and civilian government to change their behaviour. The reaction of Afghans is historically known to the whole world. Most of the time they don’t show any reaction, but if they do show, they are recorded in history,” Stanikzai said during a news conference in Kabul on Monday.

Analysts, meanwhile, believe Pakistan has been unable to control the TTP attacks and instead decided to expel Afghans as a “frustrated” response aimed at forcing Kabul to act against the armed group.

“Pakistan’s negotiations with the Afghan Taliban have failed repeatedly and this frustration is two years in the making. Now, seeing they don’t have any leverage over Afghan Taliban, they are using the refugee expulsion as a pressure tactic,” Abdul Basit, research fellow at S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told Al Jazeera.

Basit said the move to deport Afghan refugees was “ethically and morally wrong” and amounted to xenophobia. “This move is counterproductive and will only create more problems than solving the existing ones,” he said.

But Islamabad-based security analyst and former army officer, Muhammed Zeeshan, disagrees, saying armed groups such as the TTP require refuge and logistics, and the Afghans, many of whom live in the suburbs of major cities, became “exploitable havens” for the attackers.

“I believe the time has come to deal with Afghanistan’s interim government firmly, if not strictly. We need to step out of the concept of brotherhood. It’s not about that anymore, but about survival of Pakistan, and peace and security here,” he told Al Jazeera.

Journalist Sami Yousafzai says Pakistan’s deportation policy is a sign of desperation since it is unable to find common ground with Kabul over the TTP.

“Afghan citizens always viewed Pakistan with scepticism and with a negative lens. With this policy of deporting Afghans, this perception is only going to get reinforced,” he told Al Jazeera.

Analyst Basit said the forced return of refugees back to Afghanistan has perhaps pushed them to their “worst nightmare: to live under the Taliban rule”.

“These people ran away from them after August 2021, and now we are sending them back forcibly. Afghan people have lived through 40 years of wars and instability, and now they are being forced back, all because of Pakistan’s frustration with the interim rulers of Afghanistan,” he said.

“This war [against TTP] has either villains or victims, and Afghan refugees are the victims in this story.”

‘Kill me here, but I am not going back’: An Afghan refugee in Pakistan

‘Why am I being sent back?’ Hurt, anger for Afghans pushed out by Pakistan

Taliban urges Pakistan to grant more time for undocumented Afghans to leave

Photos: Dozens of Afghans deported by Pakistan authorities

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

Skool Daze

It seems that building schools in Afghanistan is key to winning hearts and minds.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - The Taliban said it will open its own schools in areas of southern Afghanistan under its control, an apparent effort to win support among local residents and undermine the western-backed government's efforts to expand education.

Canadians, Taliban in fight for young minds Schools going up in south of country

Afghan girls received school bags during the inauguration of a village primary school, built by Canadians, in Sparwan Ghar, 38 kilometres west of Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Saturday.

Of course it would help a lot if Pakistan's Military Intelligence Agencies were not funding and supporting the Taliban.

Since the Taliban schools are not schools but Madrasa for training insurgent fighters.

Afghan education minister says Taliban plan to set up schools is 'political propaganda'

Atmar described the Taliban as "enemies" of education, saying its militants had burned 183 schools in the past year, caused the closure of 396 others, forcing 200,000 students out of class. He also said 61 students and teachers had been killed.

"If they want to build schools, why are they burning our (government) schools?" he said.

Atmar dismissed the Taliban plan to open its own as "political propaganda," saying they did not control the provinces where it plans to set them up.

He said the government would have the "legitimate right" to attack Taliban schools that became centers of terrorism.

The Taliban's attacks on state schools in the past few years have chipped away at one of the main successes of Afghanistan's democratic revival: a huge foreign-funded development drive that has seen a fivefold increase in the number of children attending school.

Quetta is now the headquarters of the Taliban movement. What role are Pakistan’s intelligence agencies playing to sustain their presence?

President Musharraf relies on the religious party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, or JUI, which dominates this province, Baluchistan, as an important partner in the provincial and national parliaments.

At a madrasa, called simply Jamiya Islamiya, on winding Hajji Ghabi Road, a board in the courtyard proudly declares “Long Live Mullah Omar,” in praise of the Taliban leader, and “Long Live Fazlur Rehman,” the leader of JUI.

Members of the provincial government and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam are frequent visitors to the school, the local opposition party member said, asking that his name not be used because he feared Pakistan’s intelligence services. People on motorbikes with green government license plates visit at night, he said, as do luxurious sport utility vehicles with blackened windows, a favourite of Taliban commanders.

Increasing Pakistani role seen in Taliban resurgence

The all-powerful Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which had for long "used religious parties for Pakistan's domestic and foreign policy adventures", is extensively providing support to the Taliban.Western diplomats in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan say the ISI and the Military Intelligence are actively supporting a Taliban restoration in an effort to assert greater influence on the country's "vulnerable western flank" (read the porous Pak-Afghan border regions).

According to the New York Times, this is motivated not only by an Islamic fervour but also by a longstanding view that the jihadist movement allows them to assert greater influence in Afghanistan's border region.

According to the paper, so great is the ISI influence that even families who have lost their sons in suicide bombing missions against American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, say of the deaths on conditions of anonymity because of pressure from Pakistani intelligence agents.

The paper quoted a former Taliban commander as saying that Pakistani authorities jailed him when he refused to go to Afghanistan to fight against the NATO and Afghan forces, adding that for Western and local consumption, his arrest was billed as part of Pakistan's crackdown on the Taliban in the country.

According to Pakistani and Afghan tribal elders, former Taliban members who have refused to fight in Afghanistan have been arrested, or even mysteriously killed, after resisting pressure to re-enlist in the Taliban.

"The Pakistanis are actively supporting the Taliban," said a Western diplomat in Kabul, adding that he had seen an intelligence dossier highlighting a recent meeting on the Afghan border region between a senior Taliban commander and a retired colonel of the ISI.

Civilians on the border fear ISI

Carlotta Gall, a New York Times correspondent, who was manhandled and punched on December 19 by Pakistani agents who broke into her hotel room in Quetta, said Pakistanis and Afghans interviewed on the frontier — frightened by the long reach of Pakistan's intelligence agencies, spoke only with assurances that they would not be named. Even then, they spoke cautiously.

Despite this, they were visited by the ISI because the goons who broke into her hotel room copied data from the computers, notebooks and cellphones they seized, and tracked down her contacts and acquaintances.

They have been lucky not to have been killed so far because the ISI has a built a hideous reputation for bumping off people they see as being inimical to hardline Pakistani interests.

Some months back, Hayatullah Khan, a Pakistani journalist who exposed as lie the Pakistan military's claim of an attack on a terror camp (which was actually conducted by the US) was killed in cold blood.

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Baluchistan

Musharraf

Pakistan

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Hazara Shias flee Afghanistan fearing Taliban persecution

Attacks on religious minority prompt exodus of thousands across border to Pakistan to seek safety

THEY ARE PERSECUTED IN PAKISTAN AS WELL
Afghanistan – live updates

Sher Ali with his wife and small baby who fled Kabul and reached Chaman, Pakistan on Thursday. Photograph: Shah Meer Baloch

Shah Meer Baloch in Chaman
Sun 29 Aug 2021 

As word of Kabul’s fall to the Taliban spread across Afghanistan, there were few who greeted the news with as much fear as the Hazara Shias. The religious minority in this Sunni majority country were among the most persecuted groups when the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan, and the memories of the killings, torture and mass executions have not faded.

Signs point to Hazaras once again finding themselves a target of the Taliban. A recent Amnesty report found that Taliban militants were responsible for the murder of nine Hazaras in July, in the village of Mundarakht. Six of the men were shot and three were tortured to death, including one man who was strangled with his own scarf and had his arm muscles sliced off.

Attacks such as these have prompted a mass exodus of Hazara people over the border to Pakistan, and activists say that about 10,000 have arrived in the Pakistan city of Quetta, in Balochistan, where they are living in mosques and wedding halls, and renting rooms. Several Hazaras told the Guardian they had paid traffickers from £50 to £350 to get them across the border.

Among those sheltering in Quetta was Sher Ali, 24, a shopkeeper, who had escaped with his wife and baby. Ali reached Chaman on the Pakistan side of the frontier on Thursday. The journey, through territory controlled by the Taliban, had taken three days. They had driven along roads decimated by bomb blasts, passing burnt-out cars and destroyed bridges.

Ali had decided to leave after he witnessed his friend Mohammad Hussain, 23, being shot dead by the Taliban 10 days ago in Kabul. Hussain had been passing through a Taliban security checkpoint on a motorbike. He refused to stop and they fired at him with an assault rifle.

“When I went to the spot, Hussain’s dead body was lying on the road in a pool of blood. They emptied the AK-47 on him,” said Ali. “It was the moment I decided to leave. It is like a do or die situation for Hazara Shia; whether to leave and live, or stay and die.”

In recent days, there have been chaotic scenes at the Chaman border crossing, as tens of thousands of Afghans have attempted to make it across. Only those with Pakistan residency papers or people travelling to Pakistan for medical treatment are officially allowed in, but some of the Hazaras said traffickers would bribe authorities at the border to get Afghans across illegally.


‘Everyone is afraid’: Afghans fleeing Taliban push for exit into Pakistan

Ali said his remaining family members would be leaving for Pakistan within a few days. “We can’t live in the Taliban’s Afghanistan,” he said.

Mohammed Sharif Tahmasi, 21, a computer science student from Ghazni province, reached Chaman along with his two sisters and brother on Thursday. After making the border crossing, they waited in a muddy corner near the border fence for some more Hazara families so they could travel to Quetta together.

Tahmasi’s family has never been to Pakistan but his parents had given the children some money and instructed them to urgently get over the border as soon as they could.

left to right Mohammad Sharif Tahmasi, Ashmatullah Tahmasi, Nahid Tahmasi and Umaira Tahmasi who fled Kabul. Photograph: Shah Meer Baloch

“All Hazara parents are asking their children to leave Afghanistan and be safe,” said Tahmasi. “I don’t know how my parents and the other siblings are, but I hope my siblings are fine and they will cross soon.”

Sharif’s sister Nahid Tahmasi, 15, a student in an elementary school, said she did not want to abandon her parents but, before she had left Ghazni, Taliban restrictions on women had already begun to be enforced.

“I feel terrible,” she said. “I can’t go to school and I miss my city and friends. I miss my parents. I miss my school. When the Taliban took control of Ghazni province they banned girls’ entry into public parks and schools. They did not want girls to study. We could not roam outside, visit our neighbours and dress the way we want.”

Gulalai Haideri, a Hazara who worked as a teacher at the Women for Afghan Women NGO, in Faryab province, reached Quetta five days ago. She is pregnant and sold her jewellery to pay for the journey and to be smuggled across the border.

“We were rejected twice for entry but then I begged the guards to allow me to enter as I am pregnant and I can’t live in Afghanistan. I am a woman, I will be killed,” she said. “They had mercy and allowed my family to enter.”

Haideri said that after her province fell to the insurgents, the Taliban had been going door to door to find unmarried girls, orphaned girls, divorced women and widows to get married to their fighters.

Mohammad Fahim Arvin, 21, a student at the Kabul Polytechnic University, was told by his parents to leave and save his life. But he spoke of his sadness at having to leave his parents behind.

“The Taliban hate us and want us to join them and fight for them, but we can’t,” said Arvin. “It is not my fault I was born as a Hazara; it was God’s decision. It was not in my hands. Why do they [Taliban] want to kill us for being Hazara?”

Yet even in Pakistan, the Hazaras are not in safe territory. Here too they have been persecuted for three decades by the Sunni militant groups. Earlier this year, 10 Hazara miners working in Balochistan were murdered by members of Islamic State. According to a 2019 report by Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights, at least 509 Hazara have been murdered for their faith since 2013.

For many of Afghanistan’s Hazara community arriving into Pakistan with little money and no connections, they have had to rely on the kindness of the local community.

Syed Nadir was among those hosting five Hazara families, including Haideri’s family in Quetta who had arrived in recent days.

“I don’t know any of them, but all Hazara are going through one of the worst times,” he said. “They are leaving their homes and we should host them. All countries should play their part for the Hazaras and the Afghans.”

 

Perturbed over Pakistan, Qatar and Turkey's outreach to Taliban, Saudi Arabia eyes closer ties to India

Saudi Prince, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud is expected to be in New Delhi this weekend as part of his first visit to India as foreign minister where talks will mostly focus on the evolving situation in Afghanistan

FP StaffSeptember 16, 2021 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh. AFP

Saudi Arabia foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud is expected to visit India this weekend to discuss the unfolding situation in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

Prince Faisal, scheduled to land in India on 19 September, is expected to hold meetings with External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and also Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This meet comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the Afghanistan situation with UAE crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on 3 September over the telephone, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar hosted Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic advisor to UAE president, on 30 August and exchanged notes on the Kabul crisis.

Qatar, Turkey’s and Pakistan’s proximity to Taliban

India's allies in West Asia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are worried about the security ramifications of a Taliban-led Afghanistan and the ties shared by the Taliban and global terrorist networks.

The two nations are also said to have been perturbed by the active role played by Qatar, Turkey and Pakistan in engaging with the Taliban regime.

Qatar has turned out to be a trusted mediator in this conflict.

Doha has become a key broker in Afghanistan following last month's withdrawal of US forces, helping evacuate thousands of foreigners and Afghans, engaging the new Taliban rulers and supporting operations at Kabul airport.

Since the US pullout, Qatar Airways planes have made several trips to Kabul, flying in aid and Doha's representatives and ferrying out foreign passport holders.

Meanwhile, Turkey, which has strong historical and ethnic ties in Afghanistan, has been on the ground with non-combat troops as the only Muslim-majority member of the NATO alliance there.

According to analysts, it has developed close intelligence ties with some Taliban-linked militia. Turkey is also an ally of neighbouring Pakistan, from whose religious seminaries the Taliban first emerged.

Last week, it was reported that Turkish officials held talks with the Taliban lasting over three hours. Some of the discussions were about the future operation of the airport itself, which Turkish troops have guarded for six years.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also stated: "Turkey is ready to lend all kinds of support for Afghanistan's unity but will follow a very cautious path."

Professor Ahmet Kasim Han, an expert on Afghan relations at Istanbul's Altinbas University, while speaking to BBC said that he believes dealing with the Taliban will provide President Erdogan with an opportunity.

He says Turkey may try to position itself as "guarantor, mediator, facilitator", as a more trusted intermediary than Russia or China, who have kept their embassies open in Kabul.

"Turkey can serve that role," he says.

According to experts, the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has delivered a strategic victory to Pakistan, establishing a friendly government in Kabul for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Pakistan has backed the Taliban from their earliest days. Islamabad was one of only three countries to recognise the Taliban government in the 1990s and the last to break formal ties with it in 2001.

It also provided safe havens to Taliban leaders and medical facilities for wounded fighters. This assistance helped sustain the Taliban, even as they lost thousands of foot soldiers.

Pakistan last week sent supplies such as cooking oil and medicine to authorities in Kabul, while the country's foreign minister called on the international community to provide assistance without conditions and to unfreeze Afghanistan’s assets.

Additionally, a Pakistan International Airlines plane from Islamabad flew to Kabul on Monday, making it the first flight to land in Afghanistan from neighbouring Pakistan since the chaotic final withdrawal of US troops last month.

Saudi-Taliban ties

In the past, they worked together. But today, Saudi Arabia and the Taliban are separated by political and cultural differences, as well as some problematic history.

The last time the Taliban ran Afghanistan, between 1996 and 2001, Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries in the world to officially recognise the Islamist group's government. Neighbouring Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were the other two.

The situation changed dramatically for Saudi Arabia and the UAE after Al-Qaeda, the Sunni Muslim terrorist group, carried out suicide attacks in the US on 11 September, 2001, resulting in the deaths of over 3,000 people.

This was because Saudi Arabia had a diplomatic relationship with the United States since 1940 and the American were the Kingdom's strongest allies in trade and security.

Experts note that Saudi Arabia's once-close ties will not be revived any time soon.

The Saudi-US alliance remains important, and the country's ongoing cultural changes also play a part in this.

Saudi's controversial crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is trying to modernise his country and the idea of a more liberal and open Saudi Arabia doesn't sit well with lending support to Islamist extremists in other countries.

Moreover, Kabir Taneja, a fellow at the India-based think tank Observer Research Foundation, wrote, "To maintain its image as an upcoming investment mecca, Riyadh will have to make sure it does not once again become home to mass migration of fighters flying in and out of the Afghanistan … or become a hub of funding enabling extremist activities."

Where does India come in?

India’s policymakers must look to Saudi Arabia to expand cooperation in anti-terrorism activities and expand dialogue on relations between the two, which will help protect the India's interests related to Afghanistan.

Saudi Arabia also believes that closer ties to India will help re-balance the geopolitics of the region, whereas India believes a good relationship with Saudi will give it a chance to counter a hostile China-Pakistan axis gaining strategic depth across the Khyber.

Inputs from agencies