‘We’re no longer ‘the University of jihad’ but ‘the University of the Taliban cabinet’: inside Pakistan’s notorious madrasa

Bel Trew
Wed, 15 September 2021,

Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, northwestern Pakistan (Bel Trew)

“We are no longer to be called ‘the University of jihad’ but ‘the University of the Taliban cabinet,” chuckles the head of Darul Uloom Haqqania, arguably one of the most infamous Islamic seminaries in Pakistan.

Flanked by adoring supporters, one of whom crouches on the floor kissing his legs, Maulana Hamid Ul-Haq jokes about the nickname given by critics who have repeatedly labelled the school a hotbed of radicalisation. This is because its alumni include some of the Taliban’s most powerful and feared leaders, many of whom are on global wanted lists and are now in their new cabinet after the group swept to power in neighbouring Afghanistan last month.

Among those with close links to the school, located about 100km from the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan, was the Taliban’s founder Mullah Muhammed Omar, the one-eyed reclusive cleric-warrior who sheltered Osama bin Laden. The seminary awarded him an honorary doctorate because he brought “peace to Afghanistan and the region” Ul-Haq says.


The biggest names from the notorious Haqqani network, a US-designated terrorist group linked to the Taliban, have been taught there, including its founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani, and Khalil Haqqani, now the Taliban’s minister for refugees. The Taliban’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid is also a graduate.

But despite this, Ul-Haq, 54, vehemently rejects the accusations that the school is a factory for violence. The former member of parliament, who now heads up a religious political party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-S), remains deeply proud of the Taliban connections and waxes lyrical about his meetings with Jalahuddin and his son Sirajuddin, the Taliban’s new interior minister (and a wanted militant), whom he calls “humble”, “well-mannered”, and “visionary”.

He sees the Taliban’s surge to power in Afghanistan, and the announcement of their interim cabinet, as legitimising their position even more, and calls on the west to recognise them in order to “prevent more war”.

“We don’t want to be known as the terror or warrior university. We are proud that a number of our alumni are in the Taliban cabinet,” says Ul-Haq, estimating that more than half a dozen Taliban ministers either attended the madrasa or have sent family members there.

“That means the Taliban think that these people are visionary, humane and well educated.

“They were chosen as they know the political ups and downs, they know how to deal with the world,” he adds, beaming.

America did not come to spread love and did not give flowers. They came to bomb the region, and these men – the Taliban – were defending themselves 

Maulana Hamid Ul-Haq, head of Darul Uloom Haqqania

The day Ul-Haq speaks to The Independent happens to be the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, masterminded by Osama bin Laden, which triggered the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, where Bin Laden was sheltering.

Ul-Haq condemns the horrific attacks, which killed over 2700 people in the States, but claims Osama bin Laden was not responsible for them, saying the US invasion forced the Taliban “to defend themselves”.

And so, he says, the fact that the 20th anniversary of the attacks occurred when Afghanistan was back in the hands of the Taliban, after US-led Nato troops had withdrawn, was “a kind of justice”.

“America did not come to spread love and did not give flowers. They came to bomb the region, and these men – the Taliban – were defending themselves,” he adds with force.

“Washington has made the right decision in leaving. It was spending so much money, but suffered a lot – economically, politically, and in terms of loss of life of its forces.”

Maulana Hamid Ul-Haq is proud of the connections the Haqqania seminary has with the Taliban (Bel Trew)

The world-infamous madrasa, which teaches a fundamentalist brand of Sunni Islam known as Deobandi Islam, was founded by Hamid Ul-Haq’s grandfather – an Islamic scholar called Abdul Ul-Haq – in the weeks after Pakistan won independence from the British in 1947.

Abdul Ul-Haq’s successor was his son, Sami Ul-Haq, who was known as “the father of the Taliban” – a name the family still sees as a badge of honour. Sami was assassinated by unknown gunmen in 2018.

Now, twinkling in the sunlight, the new, pink-hued, sprawling campus is home to some 2800 students, the student body now being about half the size it was at its largest.

Behind a gate manned by guards armed with Kalashnikovs, streams of men in traditional Islamic dress, with prayer rugs slung over their shoulders, pour out of the mosque after Saturday morning prayers.

In front of them, preserved behind glass windows, is a vintage 1940s car with a sign saying it was used by Abdul Ul-Haq in the 1970s as he toured the country making speeches, but also as he participated in the movement against the (persecuted) Ahmadiyya religious community – a stark reminder of the ideological leanings of the place. Human Rights Watch says the Ahmadis have been subjected to targeted killings and violence over the decades.

Another reminder, of course, is the list of graduates. Among Darul Uloom Haqqania’s most famous students was Taliban supreme leader Akhtar Mansour, who was Mullah Omar’s successor until he was killed in a 2016 US drone strike in southwest Pakistan.

The notorious Haqqani network, and its founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, took their names from the school because Jalaluddin studied there. (The Taliban deny the existence of an offshoot Haqqani network, and say Jalaluddin is a top Taliban figure.)

Nonetheless, Jalaluddin sent several of his sons here, including, reportedly (although Ul-Haq denies this), Sirajuddin, the Taliban’s new interior minister. Sirajuddin has a $10m American bounty on his head because of his alleged involvement in a 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul, as well as for his ties to al-Qaeda.

Sirajuddin is alleged to have been involved in the 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul (AFP via Getty)

Ul-Haq confirms that several other ministers studied here, including the Taliban’s minister of education, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, and the minister for refugees, Khalil Haqqani. Other ministers, including deputy prime minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban, sent their sons to the school or had uncles and fathers who studied there.

And so the history of the seminary is one that is very much tied to the muddy history of conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan, two countries that share a 2500km border and countless political, religious and cultural connections.

Pakistan experts told The Independent the school gained prominence in the 1980s when it was backed by western intelligence services, who paid for its activities as a useful place to cultivate the mujahideen forces fighting the Soviets next door. The same experts say it was later heavily funded by Saudi Arabia, and became tied to the Taliban when the group emerged in the early 1990s from northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

“I interviewed Sami Ul-Haq [Hamid’s father] several times. He boasted of his connection with Osama bin Laden at one point,” recalls prominent Pakistani journalist Zahid Hussein, who has written several books about Pakistan’s struggle with militant Islam and its relationship with Afghanistan.

“It can be called an ideological centre for the Taliban on both sides of the border.”

Ahmed Rashid, who has written several books about the Taliban, says the madrasa was also supported by Pakistan in the early 1990s as a way to combat warlords in lands immediately adjacent in neighbouring Afghanistan, who had a stranglehold on key trade routes.

At that point it became “world-famous”.

“Students would come from all over the world. It was their first introduction to jihad,” he says.

Both experts say that, despite the connections, it has never come to blows with Pakistani administrations. Its doors have never been closed, even when the government vowed to crack down on unlicensed religious schools after a 2014 massacre of over 100 schoolchildren in the nearby city of Peshawar, which was claimed by the Taliban’s Pakistan branch, Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP). (The TTP also reportedly have connections to the school.)

Instead, in 2018 the Pakistani media reported that the local government had granted the seminary over 277m rupees (around £1m), which prime minister Imran Khan said was to assure reforms in the syllabus, but critics think might have been politically motivated.

Ahead of an election that took place in the same year, Ul-Haq’s father Sami and his JUI-S party briefly entered into a pre-election alliance with the prime minister’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in an effort to broaden his support base.

Fast-forward to 2021 and the school has taken centre-stage again.

“When the Taliban cabinet was announced I congratulated them via phone, and requested them to continue very carefully as the world is watching them,” Hamid Ul-Haq tells The Independent, in his office.

He says he warned the Taliban against the immediate application of the strictest Sharia law punishments (giving the example of lashing women), as it might be deemed by “the west” to be “a violation of human rights”.

He says he hopes the wider government, when it is announced, will be more inclusive and will have female members.

“They must be careful so the struggle should not be wasted,” he adds.

And this is the crux of the issue for neighbouring Pakistan, which has a tightrope to walk ahead as it builds ties with the Afghan Taliban administration while trying to contain a domestic terrorism problem in the form of the linked TTP.

I hope [the Afghan Taliban] will inspire a struggle for a true Islamic system here in Pakistan
Maulana Hamid Ul-Haq

Ul-Haq, who also heads up a platform of nearly 20 religious parties, was among the many hardline religious figures in Pakistan who cheered the rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan as a victory over western imperialism and secularism.

Shortly after the Taliban announced the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, he told his followers in a statement that the Taliban had established “unmatched peace and security in Afghanistan” and should “inspire” a similar change in Pakistan.

“Yes, I hope it will inspire a struggle for a true Islamic system here in Pakistan,” he reiterated to The Independent, while adding that the struggle should be “democratic” and “peaceful”.

“Our constitution says there will be Sharia law, and all laws will be made under Quranic law, but there are still British laws in our country.”

And so the question is what this struggle looks like in practice for Pakistan.

Senior Pakistani security sources told The Independent they were lobbying the Afghan Taliban to cut off ties, isolate, and so ultimately defang the Taliban’s Pakistan branch because of its involvement in terrorist activities. Pakistan’s foreign minister told The Independent that the Taliban had verbally assured Pakistan that they would not allow Afghanistan to be used as a staging ground for TTP (or Isis) terror attacks on Pakistani soil. This is particularly urgent after the TTP claimed a suicide bombing in the southwestern town of Quetta just two weeks ago.

Pakistan’s spy chief even flew to Kabul, where this issue was allegedly at the top of his agenda.

The Independent repeatedly pressed the Haqqania seminary on its exact relationship with the TTP, which is banned in Pakistan, but received no clear answer.

However the school, and Ul-Haq, have repeatedly denied any involvement in terrorist activity.

There are uncomfortable connections. Police investigating the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said her killers (thought to be members of the Pakistan Taliban) had been briefed about the plan in one of the many departments of the madrasa.

The TTP later nominated Sami Ul-Haq, Hamid’s father, to represent it in its short-lived peace talks with the government in 2014.

“There are so many people who blame us and label us as the university of terror because they are against Islam,” Ul-Haq insists.

“By labelling us as a ‘terrorist organisation’ campus, they want to scare people off us, and Islam.”

He says the school has played host to the likes of US and Afghan ambassadors, as well as Pakistan’s prime minister, while his father acted in an important mediating role between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban to bring about reconciliation and peace to the region.

“Until his last breath my father played a peaceful role for the whole of humanity,” Ul-Haq insists, adding that he continues that legacy.

As another supporter sits at his feet and begins massaging his leg, Ul-Haq returns to the subject of Afghanistan. He finishes with a warning.

“The hopes of the western world and all of the world will come true now the Taliban are in power. But they must recognise the Taliban government,” he says.

“If they don’t, it means the world wants wars for another four decades.”

Pakistan Demands Deportations of Afghans, Stoking Tension With Taliban

The Pakistani authorities announced plans to expel more than one million Afghans living illegally in Pakistan, a sign of increasing hostility between the Pakistani government and Taliban authorities.

Afghan families departing for their homeland on Friday in Karachi, Pakistan.

Credit...Fareed Khan/Associated Press

By Zia ur-Rehman and Christina Goldbaum
Zia ur-Rehman reported from Karachi, Pakistan, and Christina Goldbaum from London.
Oct. 8, 2023

Hundreds of police officers flooded into a Karachi slum around midnight, surrounding the homes of Afghan migrants and pounding at their doors. Under the harsh glare of floodlights, the police told women to stand to one side of their homes and demanded the men present immigration papers proving they were living in Pakistan legally. Those without documents were lined up in the street, some shaking with fear for what was to come: Detention in a Pakistani prison and deportation to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

The police raid on Friday in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, followed an abrupt decision by the Pakistani authorities last week to deport the more than one million Afghan migrants living illegally in the country.

“Police entered every house without warning,” said Abdul Bashar, an Afghan migrant whose two cousins were among the 51 people who the police said were arrested during the neighborhood sweep. “The fear has left us restless, making it difficult for us to sleep peacefully at night.”

On Tuesday, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry announced that migrants residing illegally in the country had 28 days to leave voluntarily, and it offered a “reward” for information leading to their arrests once that deadline passed.

Though Pakistani officials say the crackdown applies to all foreign citizens, the policy is largely believed to be targeting Afghans, who make up the vast majority of migrants in Pakistan.

While Afghans have faced harassment in Pakistan for decades, this announcement was the government’s most far-reaching and explicit action affecting Afghan migrants. It was widely seen as a sign of the increasing hostility between the Pakistani government and the Taliban authorities in neighboring Afghanistan as they clash over extremist groups operating across their borders.

At an Afghan refugee camp in Karachi last month.

Credit...Rizwan Tabassum/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Over the past year, Pakistan has experienced a surge in terrorist attacks, both by militant groups that have found haven in Afghanistan under the Taliban administration and by others whose fighters have been pushed into Pakistan following a brutal Taliban-led crackdown on their ranks. Some former Taliban fighters have also migrated to Pakistan to wage jihad against the Pakistani government.

For months, the Pakistani authorities have pleaded with the Taliban to rein in extremist violence stemming from Afghan soil. But Taliban officials have rebuffed those calls, instead offering to mediate talks between the Pakistani authorities and the militants.

The growing animosity between the two countries has threatened to further destabilize a region that is already a political tinderbox.

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On one side of the contested border, the Taliban administration in Afghanistan is armed with a vast arsenal of American-made weapons left during the U.S. withdrawal and feels encouraged by its victory over a global superpower. Many within the Taliban have also harbored resentment toward Pakistan for decades.

On the other is nuclear-armed Pakistan, which has struggled with military coups, volatile politics and waves of sectarian violence since its founding 75 years ago.

Caught in between are the roughly 1.7 million Afghans living in Pakistan illegally, according to Pakistani officials. Among them are around 600,000 people — including journalists, activists and former policemen, soldiers and former officials with the toppled U.S.-backed government — who fled after the Taliban seized power, according to United Nations estimates.

Many of those migrants face a stark choice: Either return to Afghanistan, where they fear persecution by the Taliban, or remain in Pakistan and face harassment from the Pakistani authorities.

“We have been left in the lurch,” said Mahmood Kochai, an Afghan journalist who fled to Pakistan with his wife and six children after the Taliban seized power.

Afghan children studying the Quran at an Afghan refugee camp in Karachi.

Credit...Rizwan Tabassum/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Like many Afghan migrants in the capital, Islamabad, Mr. Kochai arrived in Pakistan on a temporary visa, anticipating an asylum decision from Western embassies in Islamabad. Soon after arriving, he applied for sanctuary in the United States under a refugee program for Afghans who worked with the U.S. government or U.S.-funded organizations.

But since he applied more than a year ago, he has not heard anything back, Mr. Kochai said. Now, he is concerned about the expiration of their Pakistani visas in two months.

In Karachi, home to a sizable population of Afghan migrants, news of migrants’ getting arrested at security checkpoints on roads and in markets during routine outings has stoked panic.

Ali, a former Afghan security official who would give only his first name because of his immigrant status in Pakistan, said he and his neighbors — also Afghan migrants — had barely gone outside for two weeks, fearing getting arrested and being sent back to Afghanistan. If he is deported, he worries he faces arrest — or worse — because of his affiliation with the U.S.-backed government.

The new policy has in fact drawn criticism from human rights groups, which say deporting Afghans could put them at risk in Afghanistan. Despite the Taliban’s policy of blanket amnesty for Afghans who worked with the U.S.-backed government, human rights monitors have documented hundreds of abuses against former government officials since the Taliban seized power.

Pakistani officials have defended the policy as necessary to protect Pakistan from extremist violence. In a news conference on Tuesday, the Pakistani caretaker government’s interior minister, Sarfraz Bugti, asserted that Afghans were involved in 14 of the 24 major terrorist attacks in Pakistan this year.

“There are attacks on us from Afghanistan, and Afghan nationals are involved in those attacks,” he said. Taliban officials denied those claims.

An Afghan family near Peshawar, Pakistan, on Friday.

Credit...Abdul Majeed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The aggressive approach echoes similar crackdowns on Afghan migrants in years past, observers say. After a string of major terrorist attacks in 2016, the Pakistani authorities began a sweeping campaign to uproot Afghan migrants, forcing around 600,000 back to Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch characterized Pakistan’s actions as the world’s “largest unlawful mass forced return of refugees” in recent times.

“Afghans always get stuck when foreign relations break down between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said Sanaa Alimia, researcher and author of “Refugee Cities: How Afghans Changed Urban Pakistan.”

“That usually manifests itself as harassment of ordinary Afghans in the country and those getting harassed are usually in the lowest income groups, they are an easy target,” she added.

Pakistan has not signed the 1951 Geneva Convention and its 1967 protocol covering the status of refugees, which protects people seeking asylum. Instead, Pakistan’s Foreigners’ Act grants the authorities the right to apprehend, detain and expel foreigners — including refugees and asylum seekers — who lack valid documentation.

After previous crackdowns, many Afghans have either remained in Pakistan or returned after being deported — underlining the limit of the Pakistani government’s ability to repatriate Afghans, experts say.

Now, with the government facing dueling economic and political crises, it is unclear how the Pakistani authorities would repatriate such a large number of refugees, a deportation campaign requiring substantial personnel as well as military and intelligence resources.

Maulvi Abdul Jabbar Takhari, the Taliban’s consul general in Karachi, said that many Afghans who had been arrested possess legal documents allowing them to live in Pakistan and that Taliban officials had been trying to secure their release.

Mr. Takhari, who lived as a refugee in Karachi for several years, urged Pakistan’s government “to provide a specific time frame for undocumented refugees so that they can peacefully and respectfully wind up their businesses and return to their homeland.”

But for Afghan migrants, the wave of arrests has been a chilling reminder of their precarious status in Pakistan. Many arrived in the country decades ago, after the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and after the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal.

Abdullah Bukhari, 51, came to Karachi in 1980 from Kunduz Province fleeing violence during the Soviet-Afghan war. The notion of uprooting his life in less than a month feels absurd and heartbreaking.

“How can they uproot everything in such a short period?” Mr. Bukhari asked. “We’ve spent our lives as refugees and amid conflict, but our biggest concern is for our children. They have never experienced Afghanistan even for a day.”

At an Afghan refugee camp in Karachi.

Credit...Rizwan Tabassum/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Christina Goldbaum is the Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau chief for The Times. 

Pakistan's Order For All 'Illegal' Migrants To Leave Country Sparks Fear Among Afghans

October 08, 2023 

RFI
Niaz Ali Khan
Jawid Naimi

Documented Afghan migrants in Karachi, Pakistan. (file photo)

Pakistan's order for all “illegal” Afghan migrants to leave the country has left millions -- including long-term residents and holders of valid documents -- living in fear of being forcibly returned to the country they fled.

Some 3.7 million Afghans fleeing war, poverty, and political upheaval in their homeland currently reside in Pakistan, according to the United Nations, with Islamabad putting the number as high as 4.4 million.

But Pakistani officials say that only about 1.4 million Afghans hold the necessary documentation -- largely Proof of Registration (PoR) cards -- allowing them to remain in Pakistan legally.

While Pakistan has insisted that its October 3 order that all unauthorized asylum-seekers must leave voluntarily or be deported by November 1 only affects 1.7 million "illegal migrants," the move by Islamabad has left Afghans, documented or not, worried that they will be forced to leave.

Many tell RFE/RL that their possession of official status does not spare Afghans, who make up the vast majority of migrants in Pakistan, from detention by the authorities.

"Every night, every day, in every corner of Pakistan, they detain immigrants who have legal documents," Nawid Shahab, an Afghan migrant, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi on October 4. "They detain migrants who have PoR cards, and they detain migrants who are undocumented. There is no difference between them."

Others with official status say they are subjected to shakedowns.

"Local police fleece money from us because we are Afghan refugees, even though we have our PoR cards," said Bahadar Khan, who has lived in the port city of Karachi for 35 years.

Detained Afghan immigrants in Karachi last month.

And even those with long-established roots in Pakistan express fear that they now face deportation to a "home" country they never lived in.

"I’m married with two children. I was born here in Pakistan and have never been to Afghanistan in my life," Naseer Ahmad, a resident of Karachi whose family has lived in Pakistan for 45 years, told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. "But now, after the government decision, I will be forced to leave."

Abbas Khan, Pakistan's commissioner of Afghan refugees, dismissed suggestions that Afghans bearing legal documentation would be targeted by this week's order.

"Afghans holding PoR cards number around 1.4 million. And police can't arrest someone who has a PoR card," Khan told Radio Mashaal on October 4.

However, he suggested that those holding Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC), separate identification documents that had allowed Afghan asylum-seekers to remain in Pakistan, could now be subject to the new order.

"Another 800,000 Afghans have Afghan Citizen Cards," he said, explaining that they were given to undocumented Afghans in 2016 in cooperation among the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "They agreed that those citizens would be gradually returned to Afghanistan. But that did not happen."

A Popular Refuge

Pakistan has been a popular refuge for Afghans for decades, beginning during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation. Others fled fighting during the ensuing Afghan civil war and the Taliban's first stint in power from 1996 to 2001. Millions of Afghans returned to their homeland following the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban from power.

But after the Taliban seized power again in 2021 amid the withdrawal of international forces, an estimated 700,000 more Afghans left for Pakistan to escape a devastating economic and humanitarian crisis and possible retribution by the Taliban.

The result, Pakistani caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti claimed on October 3, is that 1.7 million Afghans are now in the country "illegally."

"Anyone living in the country illegally must go back," he said in announcing the order. "If they do not go... then all the law enforcement agencies in the provinces or federal government will be utilized to deport them."

Bugti also said that, after November 1, law enforcement agencies would confiscate the properties and businesses of illegal migrants. He said Afghans will only be allowed to travel to Pakistan using valid passports and visas, which many Afghans have experienced difficulties obtaining under the Taliban.


While Bugti said that the crackdown was not aimed specifically at Afghans, it was clear they would be the most affected group of migrants in Pakistan.

International law enshrines the right to seek refuge in a foreign country, and rights watchdogs have criticized the move by Pakistan to force asylum-seekers to leave.

Zaman Soltani, a South Asia researcher at Amnesty International, told Radio Azadi on October 4 that Islamabad should immediately reverse its decision.

"We demand that any forced deportation of migrants and those who seek asylum be halted," Soltani said. "Those who fled Afghanistan are asking for asylum and protection in Pakistan.”

“Most of these asylum seekers are former government employees, activists, journalists, or others who are facing threats, torture, and detention by the Taliban in Afghanistan," Soltani added.

The action comes amid increasing tensions between Islamabad and the Taliban, with the Pakistani government claiming that its territory has come under attack by Taliban-allied militants who shelter across the border in Afghanistan.

This has led to speculation that Islamabad's order, made by a caretaker government that is expected to rule until elections are held in January, is a response to the attacks.

In his interview with Radio Mashaal, Khan suggested that the increased number of illegal Afghan migrants following the Taliban's return to power in Kabul in 2021 has created concerns about their possible role in instability in border regions.

"I would not say that they are responsible for the law and order situation," Khan said. "But I can say that when larger number of foreigners live in a country and they don't have legal documents, that creates doubts. And that creates problems even for the genuine refugees."

Khan added that "as far as our office is concerned, we have not seen any involvement of any registered Afghan refugees in terrorism."

Bugti, the interior minister, did directly reference two deadly attacks that took place last week in southwestern and northwestern Pakistan along the country’s 2,600-kilometer border with Afghanistan as reasons for the government's order for unauthorized Afghans to leave the country.



The Taliban has said that Pakistan's plans to push out Afghans was "unacceptable." “Afghan refugees are not involved in Pakistan’s security problems," Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on October 4 on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Afghan Embassy in Islamabad has said that Pakistani counterterrorism police have detained about 1,000 Afghan refugees over the past two weeks. Some 800 were detained in the capital in a single day, the Taliban-led Afghan Refugee Council in Pakistan told Radio Azadi, of which about half who had valid travel or residency documents were subsequently released.

Some 200 illegal Afghans were arrested during a roundup in the southwestern Balochistan Province, where one of the two attacks took place last week, according to regional government representative Hamza Shafqat.

In a separate announcement in the provincial capital, Quetta, on October 4, caretaker Information Minister Jan Muhammad Achakzai alleged that "of the 24 suicide attacks carried out in Pakistan in 2023, Afghans were in involved in 14 attacks."

An elder at the Quetta Muslim Bagh Refugee Camp, Malak Nadar Khan, denied in comments to Radio Mashaal that Afghans were involved in terrorism in Pakistan.

"We are peaceful people. We are not involved in terrorism. We request the government to withdraw its decision to forcefully expel Afghan refugees."

Written by Michael Scollon based on reporting by Niaz Ali Khan of RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal and Jawid Naimi of RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

Niaz Ali Khan is a journalist with RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal.

Jawid Naimi is a journalist with RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

Militant attacks hurt Pakistan relations with Afghan Taliban

By KATHY GANNON

May 19, 2022

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FILE- Police officers attend the funeral prayer of a colleague who was killed in an overnight attack by Pakistani Taliban who targeted police in multiple attacks in Islamabad and elsewhere in the country's northwest, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Jan. 18, 2022. Faced with rising violence, Pakistan is taking a tougher line to pressure Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to crack down on militants hiding on their soil, but so far the Taliban remain reluctant to take action -- trying instead to broker a peace. (AP Photo, File)


ISLAMABAD (AP) — Faced with rising violence, Pakistan is taking a tougher line to pressure Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to crack down on militants hiding on their soil, but so far the Taliban remain reluctant to take action — trying instead to broker a peace.

Last month came a sharp deterioration in relations between the two neighbors when Pakistan carried out airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan. Witnesses said the strikes hit a refugee camp and another location, killing at least 40 civilians. UNICEF said 20 children were believed to be among the dead.

Pakistan never confirmed the April 15 strikes, but two days later its Foreign Ministry issued a sharp warning to the Taliban not to shelter militants.

The pressure has put the Taliban in a tight corner. The Taliban have long been close to several militant groups carrying out attacks in Pakistan, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, a separate organization known by the acronym TTP. The TTP and other groups have only got more active on Afghan soil since the Taliban takeover in August.

But the Taliban are wary of cracking down on them, fearful of creating more enemies at a time when they already face an increasingly violent campaign by Afghanistan’s Islamic State group affiliate, analysts say.

A series of bombings across Afghanistan in recent weeks, mostly targeting minority Hazaras, has killed dozens. Most are blamed on the Islamic State affiliate, known by the acronym IS-K. The bloodshed has undermined the Taliban’s claims to be able to provide the security expected of a governing force.

This week, the Taliban hosted talks between the TTP and a Pakistani government delegation as well as a group of Pakistani tribal leaders, apparently hoping for a compromise that can ease the pressure. On Wednesday, the TTP announced it was extending to May 30 an earlier cease-fire it had called.

The Taliban government’s deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi said it “is trying its best for the continuation and success of the negotiations and meanwhile asks both sides to have flexibility.”

But past cease-fires with the TTP have failed, and already the current one was shaken by violence last weekend.

Pakistan’s frustration appears to be growing as violence on its soil has increased.

The secessionist Baluchistan Liberation Army killed three Chinese nationals in late April. The TTP and the Afghan-based IS have targeted Pakistan’s military with increasing regularity.

Militant attacks in Pakistan are up nearly 50% since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, according to the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, an independent think tank based in Islamabad that tracks militant activities. The group documented 170 attacks between September and mid-May that killed 170 police, military and paramilitary personnel and more than 110 civilians.

The United Nations estimates that as many as 10,000 TTP militants are hiding in Afghanistan. So far, Afghanistan’s rulers have done little to dismantle militant redoubts on their territory.

Prominent Afghans from southern Afghanistan, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the Pakistani Taliban and Pakistani Baluch secessionists had established several safe houses in the area during the previous U.S.-backed government’s rule and they have remained since the Taliban takeover.

The Pakistani airstrikes in April marked a dramatically tougher stance. They came after a militant ambush killed seven soldiers near the border with Afghanistan. Pakistani and Afghani border forces often exchange rocket fire amid disputes over the frontier — but it is rare for Pakistan to use warplanes on targets inside its neighbor.

The change came after weeks of political turmoil in Pakistan that unseated Imran Khan as prime minister. Khan had been an advocate of negotiations with militants and had campaigned for the world to engage with the Taliban after their takeover in Afghanistan.

Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the U.S.-based Wilson Center said Khan “had a soft spot for the Taliban as well as a principled opposition to the use of force in Afghanistan.”

With Khan now out of the picture and TTP attacks continuing, “we can expect a stronger Pakistani readiness to use military operations,” he said.

The Afghan Taliban are warning Pakistan against further military action, threatening retaliation.

The airstrikes “are not acceptable,” Taliban-appointed Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob warned Pakistan in late April. “The only reason we have tolerated this attack is because of our national interest, but it is possible we will not be so tolerant in the future.”

The son of the Taliban founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, Yaqoob is a powerful figure in the Taliban leadership, which is struggling to stay united amid disagreements about how to govern their war-ravaged nation.

The leadership council seems firmly split between two camps: the pragmatists and hard-liners. Pragmatists have pushed for global engagement and opening of schools to girls of all ages. The hard-liners want to return Afghanistan to the late 1990s Taliban rule when women and girls were denied access to most public spaces and a rigid and unforgiving version of Islam and tribal rule was imposed.

A flurry of repressive edicts of late suggest the hard-liners have the upper hand, including an order that women wear all-encompassing veils that leave only the eyes visible and a decision not to allow girls to attend school past the sixth grade.

Yaqoob falls among the pragmatists, according to several prominent Afghans familiar with the Taliban leadership. Still, there seems no decision among the leaders on either side of the divide to oust militants on their territory.

“I do not see any quick fix to the Pakistan-Afghan situation. The Taliban will continue to provide sanctuary to the TTP and hope they can extend their own influence into Pakistan over time,” said Shuja Nawaz, an expert and fellow at the South Asia Center of the U.S-based Atlantic Council.

“So, expect the situation to deteriorate, especially with the (Pakistan) military calling the shots on Afghan policy,” Nawaz said.

Afghanistan: Pakistan braces for more 'Islamization' after Taliban victory

In the late 1990s, Pakistan saw a surge in religious extremism when the Taliban came to power in neighboring Afghanistan. Would it be any different this time around?



Experts say that Taliban triumph in Afghanistan would give a boost to fundamentalist forces in Pakistan

The Taliban's capture of Kabul in 1996 gave impetus to Islamist militant groups across the world, but the country that was most affected by the rise of fundamentalism in Afghanistan was its neighbor, Pakistan.

Not only did the victory of the "students" (the Taliban in Arabic) embolden extremist and militant groups in Pakistan, some people in the South Asian country also saw it as a "divine" sign.

Fed up with the country's mainstream political parties, who had failed to deliver to the common people, the demand for Shariah law and a Taliban-style government had started echoing across Pakistan.

Political Islam, thus, gained tremendous strength in the Muslim-majority country, and the hardline Wahabi version of Islam became even more popular due to the rise of the Taliban.

As the country's military establishment was backing the Islamists at the time, experts said the surge in support in Pakistan for the Taliban was a natural outcome of state policies.

Twenty years after the US and allied forces toppled the Taliban regime, the fundamentalist group is back in power in Afghanistan. Analysts say that Pakistan is bound to be affected by the Taliban triumph.

Deja vu?

When the militant group first came to power in Afghanistan, Pakistan saw a sudden spike in jihadist outfits and religious seminaries. Sectarian clashes also increased sharply in the country, with militant Sunni organizations targeting members of the Shiite sect and other minority groups.

"Pakistani authorities and Sunni extremist groups are still backing the Taliban, which could fuel sectarian tensions in the country," Ahsan Raza, a Lahore-based political analyst, told DW.

Watch video02:02 One month of Taliban rule in Afghanistan

Raza says these tensions could escalate in the coming weeks. "The success of their 'ideological brothers' in Afghanistan has given them a boost," referring to Pakistani Islamist groups.

The withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban takeover of the country has also reinvigorated the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TPP), a group banned by Islamabad due to its violent attacks on civilians and security forces.

Islamabad has urged the Afghan Taliban to ensure that the TTP does not use Afghan soil to launch attacks inside Pakistan. Despite the Taliban's assurance, the TTP has already intensified its attacks on Pakistani troops.

Analyst Said Alam Mehsud said that he believes terrorist attacks are likely to increase not only in northwestern areas of Pakistan but across the country.
Renewed demand for Shariah imposition

Religious groups are demanding the imposition of Shariah law in Pakistan more vigorously than before.

In the late 1990s, religious parties took to the streets to force former premier Nawaz Sharif to introduce more Islamic laws. Experts say that extremist parties could launch a similar campaign to further Islamize the country.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a former parliamentarian and leader of the religious Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, told DW the victory of the Afghan Taliban would have a positive impact on Pakistan and the region. "The demand for the imposition of Shariah would gain momentum," he said, adding that the country was created to uphold Islamic values.

"There is no harm if Shariah is imposed here as well," he added.

Kishwar Zehra, a Pakistani legislator, told DW that some religious groups, spurred by the Taliban triumph, have already started campaigning against liberal groups and women activists.

"I think they have the power to pressure Prime Minister Imran Khan's government into passing retrogressive laws," she added.


Watch video05:56 Pakistani society needs to confront victim blaming, says Amnesty's Rimmel Mohydin

Pakistan's 'pro-Taliban' government

Khan's center-right government is already facing criticism for cozying up to religious extremists and introducing regressive legislation in parliament.

Khan, who has long supported the Taliban, has been severely criticized for his "misogynistic" views. In June, he faced backlash following comments that appear to put the blame for sexual abuse on women.

"If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they are robots," Khan said during an interview for news website Axios, aired by US broadcaster HBO. He proceeded to say that this was "common sense."

Khan had made the comments roughly two months after a similar controversy. During a question and answer briefing with the public, Khan had said that the rise in sexual violence in Pakistan was due to the lack of "pardah," the practice of veiling, in the country.

"The civil society is opposing the 'Talibanization' of Pakistan, but unfortunately the state is supporting them. It could result in increased suppression of journalists and NGOs," Asad Butt, vice chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told DW.

Pakistan: Taliban donations, recruitment on the rise

As NATO forces begin their withdrawal from Afghanistan, some clerics and Islamist groups sympathetic to the Afghan Taliban are accused of intensifying efforts to solicit support for the militant group.



Clashes erupted earlier in May between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters in the Busharan area in Helmand province, Afghanistan

Concerns have been growing in Pakistan over intensified clashes in Afghanistan, with some politicians and civil society organizations fearing that they could prompt local militants to join the Afghan Taliban.

On Sunday, Afghan forces confronted Taliban fighters near Mihtarlam, a city of around 140,000 people and the capital of Laghman province.

Clashes have escalated in Afghanistan since US and NATO forces began their withdrawal of troops on May 1, with insurgents attempting to capture new territory. Foreign forces are set to pull out by September 11.

Analysts warn that Afghanistan is at risk of surging violence similar to that of the 1990s when the Taliban rose to power and thousands of Pakistanis joined the Afghan Taliban to fight the Northern Alliance.

Recently, videos have emerged on Pakistani social media platforms showing clerics soliciting support for the Afghan Taliban and calling for donations.

The Afghan Taliban is banned in Pakistan, but some clerics or Islamist groups sympathetic to the militant group have been known to recruit on their behalf.
'Openly collecting donations' in Balochistan

A former senator and leader of the nationalist Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party in the western Pakistani province of Balochistan, who did not want to be named, claims the Taliban is already carrying out recruitment to fight the Afghan government.

"Come to Balochistan, and I will show the villages and areas where clerics are openly attending the funerals of those Pakistanis killed in Afghanistan while fighting for the Taliban," he told DW, adding that recruitment will pick up pace once foreign troops have completely departed from the war-torn country.

Watch video04:19
Afghanistan: Taliban's return to power 'likely'

Muhammed Sarfraz Khan, the former director of the Area Study Center of Peshawar University, told DW that clerics from North and South Waziristan to Kurrum and Khyber in Pakistan are "luring" people into joining the Taliban as state authorities turn a blind eye.

They are openly collecting donations, he said, adding that the withdrawal of foreign troops will have a severe impact on the northwestern and western provinces of Pakistan, the regions which are home to tens of thousands of Afghan Taliban supporters, according to the expert.

'Government is watchful'

Political analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai, meanwhile, said Pakistanis are unlikely to join Afghan Taliban forces, at least not in large numbers as they did during the Soviet War in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.

"The situation is much different now because the government is watchful. It will not allow people to cross over into Afghanistan and fight for the Taliban," Yusufzai told DW.

"However, in remote areas close to the Afghan border, people might still go to fight and collect donations," he said, adding that some Afghan students studying in Pakistani seminaries might support the Taliban and head to Afghanistan.

"They can see the victory of the Taliban and the situation is in their favor," he said.

Peshawar-based analyst Samina Afridi also believes that support for the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan's so-called tribal belt has dwindled.

"There are pockets of support for the Afghan Taliban in North and South Waziristan, but most of the people in other parts of the KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) want schools, hospitals, roads and infrastructure, not any militancy, be it from the Afghan Taliban or any other group," she told DW.

Afridi said clerics sympathetic to the Afghan Taliban might begin recruitment or collect donations but that such actions would be "vehemently" resisted by anti-war grassroots organizations like the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement.

Pakistanis accused of Taliban support

Islamabad, Pakistani religious organizations and several Pakistani Taliban have also been accused of throwing support behind the Afghan Taliban

Watch video02:31
Afghanistan: Troop departures endanger those left behind

During the 1990s, Pakistan was among the three countries that recognized the Taliban-governed Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

In recent years, critics called Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan "Taliban Khan" for suggesting that the Afghan Taliban should be engaged in talks despite the group's insurgency between 2004 and 2016. Sporadic attacks have also been carried out in recent years.

Prominent Pakistani Taliban member Asmat Ullah Mauvia reportedly joined the Afghan Taliban in the fight against foreign troops and the Ghani government.

More recently, Pakistani Taliban leader Adnan Rasheed was also reported to have joined the Afghan Taliban.

Rasheed was convicted of an attack on former Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, in December 2003 and imprisoned. In 2012, however, the Pakistani Taliban stormed the Bannu Prison, freeing hundreds of militants including Rasheed.

Pakistani religious parties like Jamiat Ulema Islam of Maulana Fazl ur Rehman and the Jamiat Ulema Islam Sami ul Haq Group have also been accused of supporting the Afghan Taliban.

Warnings for India

Muhammad Iqbal Khan Afridi, a parliamentarian from Pakistan's ruling party, said authorities have placed strict measures to prevent cross-border movement of militants, such as setting up fences at the border with Afghanistan.

Afridi dismissed claims of Afghan Taliban recruitment or donation campaigns.

The parliamentarian did, however, warn India against using Afghan soil to create problems for Pakistan, saying New Delhi would face dire consequences for doing so.

UPDATED

Taliban fire in air to disperse protesters, arrest reporters

By KATHY GANNON

1 of 7

Afghans shout slogans during an anti-Pakistan demonstration, near the Pakistan embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. Sign in Persian reads, "Pakistan Pakistan Get out of Afghanistan." (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban fired into the air Tuesday to disperse protesters and arrested several journalists, the second time in less than a week the group used heavy-handed tactics to break up a demonstration in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

The demonstrators had gathered outside the Pakistan Embassy to accuse Islamabad of aiding the Taliban’s assault on northern Panjshir province. The Taliban said Monday they seized the province — the last not in their control — after their blitz through Afghanistan last month.

Afghanistan’s previous government routinely accused Pakistan of aiding the Taliban, a charge Islamabad has denied. Former vice president Amrullah Saleh, one of the leaders of the anti-Taliban forces, has long been an outspoken critic of neighboring Pakistan.

Dozens of women were among the protesters Tuesday. Some of them carried signs bemoaning the killing of their sons by Taliban fighters they say were aided by Pakistan. One sign read: “I am a mother when you kill my son you kill a part of me.”

On Saturday, Taliban special forces troops in camouflage fired their weapons into the air to end a protest march in the capital by Afghan women demanding equal rights from the new rulers.

The Taliban again moved quickly and harshly to end Tuesday’s protest when it arrived near the presidential palace. They fired their weapons into the air and arrested several journalists covering the demonstration. In one case, Taliban waving Kalashnikov rifles took a microphone from a journalist and began beating him with it, breaking the microphone. The journalist was later handcuffed and detained for several hours.

“This is the third time i have been beaten by the Taliban covering protests,” he told The Associated Press on condition he not be identified because he was afraid of retaliation. “I won’t go again to cover a demonstration. It’s too difficult for me.”

A journalist from Afghanistan’s popular TOLO News was detained for three hours by the Taliban before being freed along with his equipment and the video of the demonstration still intact.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

Meanwhile, in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, four aircraft chartered to evacuate about 2,000 Afghans fleeing Taliban rule were still at the airport.

Mawlawi Abdullah Mansour, the Taliban official in charge of the city’s airport, said any passenger, Afghan or foreigner, with a passport and valid visa would be allowed to leave. Most of the passengers are believed to be Afghans without proper travel documents.

None of the passengers had arrived at the airport. Instead, organizers apparently told evacuees to travel to Mazar-e-Sharif and find accommodation until they were called to come to the airport.

The Taliban say they are trying to find out who among the estimated 2,000 have valid travel documents.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Qatar on Tuesday the Taliban have given assurances of safe passage for all seeking to leave Afghanistan with proper travel documents.

He said the United States would hold the Taliban to that pledge. “It’s my understanding that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said those without valid documents, at this point, can’t leave,” he said.

“Because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights have not been allowed to go,” he added.

The State Department is also working with the Taliban to facilitate additional charter flights from Kabul for people seeking to leave Afghanistan after the American military and diplomatic departure, Blinken told a joint news conference with Qatar’s top diplomatic and defense officials.

“In recent hours” the U.S. has been in contact with Taliban officials to work out arrangements for additional charter flights from the Afghan capital, he said.

Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were in Qatar to thank the Gulf state for its help with the transit of tens of thousands of people evacuated from Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of Kabul on Aug. 15.

___

Associates Press writers Tameem Akhgar in Istanbul and Robert Burns in Qatar contributed to this report.

Hundreds in Kabul Protest Taliban Rule

By Ayesha Tanzeem

VOA
September 07, 2021

Afghan women shout slogans and wave Afghan national flags during an anti-Pakistan demonstration, near the Pakistan embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 7, 2021. Sign in Persian at right reads, "Pakistan Pakistan Get out from Afghanistan."


ISLAMABAD - Hundreds of protesters, including dozens of women, were in the streets Tuesday in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, chanting anti-Taliban slogans as they protested Taliban rule of the country and what they say is Pakistan’s involvement.

The Taliban allowed some of the groups to walk through the streets, but they fired warning shots into the air in at least two locations, according to local media reports and video footage captured by mobile phones that is circulating on social media.

Multiple men in dark clothing fired the shots to disperse hundreds of protesters gathered outside Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul. In one instance, the bursts were so long and sustained that they sounded like a fireworks display. Afghan television footage showed people running for cover.

“Taliban members in police vehicles initially drove alongside the protesters, not preventing them from demonstrating,” reported BBC’s Secunder Kirmani, who was at one such protest.

They later fired warning shots and stopped the BBC team and several other journalists from filming the scene further.

Local media reported the Taliban detained 14 journalists for several hours. The journalists, including local Tolo news network’s Wahid Ahmadi, later were released and their equipment was returned.

According to Kabul News TV, one of its photographers, Najim Sultani, was injured, and the reporter, Emran Fazili, was beaten by the Taliban.

At a press conference Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid called the protests illegal and said protesters needed to get permission and inform the Taliban administration of the time, place, and aim of any protests. He told people to refrain from protesting until the new administration is fully functional.

Some of the crowd expressed anger directed mainly against Afghanistan’s neighbor Pakistan, which many Afghans say supports the Taliban. Pakistan denies these allegations, claiming it has “no favorites” in Afghanistan.

Members of the crowd, many of whom were carrying anti-Pakistan banners, at one point chanted, “Death to Taliban,” “death to Pakistan” and “Pakistan, get out from Afghanistan,” along with shouts of “freedom.”

This was the first protest after an audio message Monday from anti-Taliban resistance leader Ahmad Massoud that called on Afghans to rise up against the Taliban.

In a press conference Monday in Kabul, Taliban spokesman Mujahid said the group had taken over Massoud’s stronghold Panjshir and declared the war over. Soon after the presser, Massoud and his followers posted messages on social media saying they were hiding in the mountains to regroup and intended to continue the fight.

Massoud Vows to Fight on Despite Retreat

In an audio message on his Facebook page, resistance leader Ahmad Massoud said his forces are still present in Panjshir and will continue to fight the Taliban

Women in Afghanistan had been protesting for nearly a week for their rights, but this was the first protest in which a large number of men joined them.

At his Monday news conference, Mujahid, when questioned about women’s right to protest, said they needed to wait until the new government is formed before they protest.

“We have seen the protests by women. We are trying, and we hope to resolve their issues as soon as possible,” he said. He also warned against creating chaos, reminding people of the deadly bomb attacks outside Kabul airport last month that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 Americans.

The Taliban have asked women working in the health ministry to return to work and have allowed female students in universities to return to their classes. They have hinted, however, that their cabinet will not include a female minister.

Women in Afghanistan are demanding more clarity about their potential role in the new setup. Western governments have said they will be watching how the Taliban treat women and minorities in the country before deciding whether to give the Taliban recognition or much needed economic aid.

International human rights groups have expressed concern over the use of violence against peaceful protesters.

“Exercising right to freedom of peaceful assembly is a human right,” rights watchdog Amnesty International tweeted.

Victorious Taliban gloat over ruins of CIA's Afghan base

Issued on: 07/09/2021 - 

Only a heap of rubble and twisted metal remain in what was the last CIA base in Afghanistan

 Aamir QURESHI AFP

Deh Sabz (Afghanistan) (AFP)

After America's longest war, Taliban commander Mullah Hasnain contemplates all that is left of what was part of the last CIA base -- demolished buildings, destroyed vehicles and piles of ammunition.

"We let them go peacefully, and look what they've left behind," Hasnain said, a leader of the Taliban's elite Badri 313 unit.

Hasnain, a thick-bearded man dressed in traditional brown robes with a waistcoat and black turban, surveyed the charred ruins of the sprawling complex on the edge of Afghanistan's capital Kabul.


"Before going, they destroyed everything," he told journalists being shown the site, flanked by Taliban guards cradling American M-16 rifles and equipped with the latest military kit.

The complex was once one of the most secure sites in Afghanistan, sited on a dusty plain near the former US Eagle Base camp and close to Kabul airport.

After a two-week blitz of Afghanistan, the Taliban capped their extraordinary victory by sweeping into Kabul on August 15.

It would take two weeks more before the final US forces flew out, ending their 20-year war in the country.

- 'Lots of explosions' -

As the CIA destroyed their base, from where they trained Afghanistan's intelligence agencies, the Taliban watched from nearby, the commander said.

The parking lot is packed with the incinerated wrecks of scores of vehicles 

Aamir QURESHI AFP

"We were there for nine or 10 days," 35-year-old Hasnain said, speaking in clear English. "There were lots of explosions."

"We didn't stop them, even the last convoy that went by road to the airport. We didn't attack them, because we followed orders from our top officials."

Hasnain pointed at one crater he said had been "an ammunition warehouse". Only a heap of rubble and twisted metal remain.

The US detonated the munition dump on August 27, with the huge blast echoing across Kabul and sparking terror.

A day earlier, Islamic State-Khorasan, Afghanistan's branch of the jihadist franchise and rivals of the Taliban, had attacked crowds at the airport trying to flee.

They killed more than 100 Afghan civilians and 13 US troops.

Hasnain pointed to another area, where dozens of crates packed with hundreds of rockets were piled. "Please don't move the grenades," he told journalists.

Piles of unused ammunition lay scattered around. "We can still shoot with them," he said.

One building was left intact, a large games room with billiards, table football, darts and soft velvet armchairs. Its sign still dangled outside -- "The Snooker Club".

A Taliban Badri 313 unit officer stands guard at the destroyed CIA base in Deh Sabz District 

Aamir QURESHI AFP

He looked out over a parking lot, packed with the incinerated wrecks of scores of vehicles.

"We need everything for the country, including weapons -- we don't have enough to ensure security," he said.

"Now we have to buy them from other countries," he added, declining to specify which ones.

- Deliberate destruction -

The US said it left as little military equipment as possible behind for the Taliban, who carried out years of bloody attacks against foreign forces, Afghan troops and the civilian population.

At the nearby airport, US troops disabled or destroyed scores of aircraft and armoured vehicles, as well as a high-tech defence system used to stop rocket attacks.

Hasnain was angry at the deliberate destruction, seeing the burned wreckage as symbolic of America's two-decade stay.

"The US came to Afghanistan saying that they would rebuild the country," he said. "This is their real face, they didn't leave anything."

The Taliban nevertheless seized a major arsenal of weapons elsewhere, as well as from the formerly US-backed government army, including fleets of armoured vehicles.

Ankle-deep in the ash of the burned base, Hasnain offered a message of conciliation, echoing his Taliban superiors.

"We did not make war to kill Americans," he said. "We did it to free the country and restore sharia law."

But many in Afghanistan remember the harsh 1996-2001 regime when the Taliban were previously in power all too well.

The US destroyed the last CIA base in Afghanistan as its troops pulled out 

Aamir QURESHI AFP

With the hardline Islamists back in charge, they are holding their judgement to see if their pledge of a more moderate rule will become a reality.

© 2021 AFP

Imran Khan paints Pakistan as victim of US ungratefulness

In this image taken from video provided by UN Web TV, Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, remotely addresses the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in a pre-recorded message, Friday Sept. 24, 2021 at UN headquarters.

 (UN Web TV via AP)
By MALLIKA SEN

NEW YORK (AP) — Prime Minister Imran Khan sought to cast Pakistan as the victim of American ungratefulness and an international double standard in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.

In a prerecorded speech aired during the evening, the Pakistani prime minister touched on a range of topics that included climate change, global Islamophobia and “the plunder of the developing world by their corrupt elites” — the latter of which he likened to what the East India Company did to India.

It was for India’s government that Khan reserved his harshest words, once again labeling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government “fascist.” But the cricketer turned posh international celebrity turned politician was in turn indignant and plaintive as he painted the United States as an abandoner of both Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan.

“For the current situation in Afghanistan, for some reason, Pakistan has been blamed for the turn of events, by politicians in the United States and some politicians in Europe,” Khan said. “From this platform, I want them all to know, the country that suffered the most, apart from Afghanistan, was Pakistan when we joined the U.S. war on terror after 9/11.”

He launched into a narrative that began with the United States and Pakistan training mujahedeen — regarded as heroes by the likes of then-President Ronald Reagan, he said — during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. But Pakistan was left to pick up the pieces — millions of refugees and new sectarian militant groups — when the Soviets and the Americans left in 1989.

Khan said the U.S. sanctioned its former partner a year later, but then came calling again after the 9/11 attacks. Khan said Pakistan’s aid to the U.S. cost 80,000 Pakistani lives and caused internal strife and dissent directed at the state, all while the U.S. conducted drone attacks.

“So, when we hear this at the end. There is a lot of worry in the U.S. about taking care of the interpreters and everyone who helped the U.S.,” he said, referring to Afghanistan. “What about us?”

Instead of a mere “word of appreciation,” Pakistan has received blame, Khan said.

Despite Khan’s rhetoric espousing a desire for peace, many Afghans have blamed Pakistan for the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan because of close links. The United Nations in August also rejected Pakistan’s request to give its side at a special meeting on Afghanistan, indicating the international community’s shared skepticism.

In his speech, Khan echoed what his foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, told The Associated Press earlier this week on the sidelines at the U.N.: the international community should not isolate the Taliban, but instead strengthen the current Afghan government for the sake of the people.

He struck an optimistic tone about Taliban rule, saying their leaders had committed to human rights, an inclusive government and not allowing terrorists on Afghan soil. But messages from the Taliban have been mixed.

A Taliban founder told the AP earlier this week that the hard-liners would once again carry out executions and amputated hands — though this time after adjudication by judges, including women, and potentially not in public.

“If the world community incentivizes them, and encourages them to walk this talk, it will be a win-win situation for everyone,” he said.

Khan also turned his ire on that same community for what he perceives as a free pass given to India.

“It is unfortunate, very unfortunate, that the world’s approach to violations of human rights lacks even-handedness, and even is selective. Geopolitical considerations, or corporate interests, commercial interests often compel major powers to overlook the transgressions of their affiliated countries,” Khan said.

He went through a litany of actions that have “unleashed a reign of fear and violence against India’s 200 million strong Muslim community,” he said, including lynchings, pogroms and discriminatory citizenship laws.

As in years past, Khan — who favors delivering his speeches in his British-inflected English, in contrast to Modi’s Hindi addresses — devoted substantial time to Kashmir.

“New Delhi has also embarked on what it ominously calls the ‘final solution’ for the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Khan said, rattling off a list of what he termed “gross and systematic violations of human rights” committed by Indian forces. He specifically decried the “forcible snatching of the mortal remains of the great Kashmiri leader, ” Syed Ali Geelani , who died earlier this month at 91.

Geelani’s family has said authorities took his body and buried him discreetly and without their consent, denying the separatist leader revered in Kashmir a proper Islamic burial. Khan called upon the General Assembly to demand Geelani’s proper burial and rites.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and has been claimed by both since they won independence from the British empire and began fighting over their rival claims.

He said Pakistan desires peace, but it is India’s responsibility to meaningfully engage.

India exercised its right of reply after the last leader spoke Friday, saying it was upon Pakistan, not India, to demonstrate good faith in engagement. An Indian diplomat said Pakistan needed to look inward before making accusations, and stressed that Kashmir was inalienably India’s. Pakistan then exercised its own right of reply, excoriating India once more.

Modi is set to address the U.N. General Assembly in person on Saturday, a day after a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.

___

Follow Sen on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mallikavsen

l

US, Pakistan face each other again on Afghanistan threats

 In this Sept. 23, 2021, file photo Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, left, meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, on the sidelines of the 76th UN General Assembly in New York. The Taliban’s takeover of Kabul has deepened the mutual distrust between the U.S. and Pakistan, two putative allies who have tangled over Afghanistan. The Biden administration looking for new ways to stop terrorist threats in Afghanistan, will likely look again to Pakistan, which remains critical to U.S. intelligence and national security because of its proximity to Afghanistan and connections to the Taliban leaders now in charge. 

( (Kena Betancur/Pool Photo via AP, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taliban’s takeover of Kabul has deepened the mutual distrust between the U.S. and Pakistan, two putative allies who have tangled over Afghanistan. But both sides still need each other.

With the Biden administration looking for new ways to stop terrorist threats in Afghanistan, it will likely look again to Pakistan, which remains critical to U.S. intelligence and national security because of its proximity to Afghanistan and connections to the Taliban leaders now in charge.

Over two decades of war, American officials accused Pakistan of playing a double game by promising to fight terrorism and cooperate with Washington while cultivating the Taliban and other extremist groups that attacked U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Islamabad, meanwhile, pointed to what it saw as failed promises of a supportive government in Kabul after the U.S. drove the Taliban from power following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as extremist groups took refuge in eastern Afghanistan and launched deadly attacks throughout Pakistan.

But the U.S. wants Pakistani cooperation in counterterrorism efforts and could seek permission to fly surveillance flights into Afghanistan or other intelligence cooperation. And Pakistan wants U.S. military aid and good relations with Washington, even as its leaders openly celebrate the Taliban’s rise to power.

“Over the last 20 years, Pakistan has been vital for various logistics purposes for the U.S. military. What’s really been troubling is that, unfortunately, there hasn’t been a lot of trust,” said U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee. “I think the question is whether we can get over that history to arrive at a new understanding.”

Former diplomats and intelligence officers from both countries say the possibilities for cooperation are severely limited by the events of the last two decades and Pakistan’s enduring competition with India. The previous Afghan government, which was strongly backed by New Delhi, routinely accused Pakistan of harboring the Taliban. The new Taliban government includes officials that American officials have long believed are linked to Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence.

Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., said he understood “the temptation of officials in both countries to try and take advantage of the situation” and find common ground. But Haqqani said he expected Pakistan to give “all possible cooperation to the Taliban.”

“This has been a moment Pakistan has been waiting for 20 years,” said Haqqani, now at the Hudson Institute think tank. “They now feel that they have a satellite state.”

U.S. officials are trying to quickly build what President Joe Biden calls an “over the horizon” capacity to monitor and stop terrorist threats.

Without a partner country bordering Afghanistan, the U.S. has to fly surveillance drones long distances, limiting the time they can be used to watch over targets. The U.S. also lost most of its network of informants and intelligence partners in the now-deposed Afghan government, making it critical to find common ground with other governments that have more resources in the country.

Pakistan could be helpful in that effort by allowing “overflight” rights for American spy planes from the Persian Gulf or permitting the U.S. to base surveillance or counterterrorism teams along its border with Afghanistan. There are few other options among Afghanistan’s neighbors. Iran is a U.S. adversary. And Central Asian countries north of Afghanistan all face varying degrees of Russian influence.

There are no known agreements so far. CIA Director William Burns visited Islamabad earlier this month to meet with Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, Pakistan’s army chief, and Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, who leads the ISI, according to a Pakistani government statement. Burns and Hameed have also separately visited Kabul in recent weeks to meet with Taliban leaders. The CIA declined to comment on the visits.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi noted this week that Islamabad had cooperated with U.S. requests to facilitate peace talks before the Taliban takeover and that it had agreed to U.S. military requests throughout the war.

“We have often been criticized for not doing enough,” Qureshi told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “But we’ve not been appreciated enough for having done what was done.”

Qureshi would not directly answer whether Pakistan would allow the basing of surveillance equipment or overflight of drones.

“They don’t have to be physically there to share intelligence,” he said of the U.S. “There are smarter ways of doing it.”

The CIA and ISI have a long history in Afghanistan, dating back to their shared goal of arming bands of mujahedeen — “freedom fighters” — against the Soviet Union’s occupation in the 1980s. The CIA sent weapons and money into Afghanistan through Pakistan.

Those fighters included Osama bin Laden. Others would become leaders of the Taliban, which emerged victorious from a civil war in 1996 and gained control of most of the country. The Taliban gave refuge to bin Laden and other leaders of al-Qaida, which launched deadly attacks on Americans abroad in 1998 and then struck the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.

After 9/11, the U.S. immediately sought Pakistan’s cooperation in its fight against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. Declassified cables published by George Washington University’s National Security Archive show officials in President George W. Bush’s administration made several demands of Pakistan, from intercepting arms shipments heading to al-Qaida to providing the U.S. with intelligence and permission to fly military and intelligence planes over its territory.

The CIA would carry out hundreds of drone strikes launched from Pakistan targeting al-Qaida leaders and others alleged to have ties to terrorist groups. Hundreds of civilians died in the strikes, according to figures kept by outside observers, leading to widespread protests and public anger in Pakistan.

Pakistan, meanwhile, continued to be accused of harboring the Taliban after the U.S.-backed coalition drove the group from power in Kabul. And bin Laden was killed in 2011 by U.S. special forces in a secret raid on a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, home to the country’s military academy. The bin Laden operation led many in the U.S. to question whether Pakistan had harbored bin Laden and angered Pakistanis who felt the raid violated their sovereignty.

For years, CIA officials tried to confront their Pakistani counterparts after collecting more proof of Pakistani intelligence officers helping the Taliban move money and fighters into a then-growing insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan, said Douglas London, who oversaw the CIA’s counterterrorism operations in South Asia until 2018.

“They would say, ‘You just come to my office, tell me where the location is,’” he said. “They would just usually pay lip service to us and say they couldn’t confirm the intel.”

London, author of the forthcoming book “The Recruiter,” said he expected American intelligence would consider limited partnerships with Pakistan on mutual enemies such as al-Qaeda or Islamic State-Khorasan, which took responsibility for the deadly suicide attack outside the Kabul airport last month during the final days of the U.S. evacuation.

The risk, London said, is at times “your partner is as much of a threat to you as the enemy who you’re pursuing.”

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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.