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

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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.”

___

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

PAKISTAN
UN report finds ‘strong and symbiotic’ links between Afghan Taliban, TTP

Tahir Khan Published June 11, 2023 

The link between the Afghan Taliban and proscribed militant outfits Al-Qaeda and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) remains “strong and symbiotic”, a report published by the United Nations (UN) said.

The fourteenth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of the UN Security Council’s 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee — released on Friday — noted that a “range of terrorist groups has greater freedom of manoeuvre under the Taliban de facto authorities”.

“They are making good use of this, and the threat of terrorism is rising in both Afghanistan and the region,” the report read, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com.

“While they have sought to reduce the profile of these groups and conducted maintaining links to numerous terrorist entities, the Taliban have lobbied member states for counter-terrorism assistance in its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIL-K), which it perceives as its principal rival.”

The report said that the Taliban forces have conducted operations against ISIL-K, in general, but they have not delivered on the counter-terrorism provisions under the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the United States of America and the Taliban.

“There are indications that Al-Qaeda is rebuilding operational capability, that TTP is launching attacks into Pakistan with support from the Taliban, that groups of foreign terrorist fighters are projecting threat across Afghanistan’s borders and that the operations of ISIL-K are becoming more sophisticated and lethal (if not more numerous),” it added.

However, the Afghan Taliban dismissed the report and called it “full of prejudice”.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers the continuation of UN Security Council sanctions and such reports as full of prejudice and in conflict with the principles of independence and non-interference, and calls for an end to it,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement today.



Mujahid called the accusations “baseless” and a result of “obvious hostility” with the people of Afghanistan as well as repetition of the “baseless propaganda” of the past 20 years.

“We strongly reject the assessment of this report that the Islamic Emirate is helping the opponents of neighbouring and regional countries or using the territory of Afghanistan against other countries, from the content of this report”.

The Taliban spokesman said it seemed that either the UNSC’s authors did not have access to the information or they “deliberately distorted” the facts or the source of their information was the Islamic Emirate’s fugitive opponents.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan insists on its commitments and assures that there is no threat from the territory of Afghanistan to the region, neighbours and countries of the world and it does not allow anyone to use its territory against others,” Mujahid added.
Pakistan’s stance

Pakistani security officials have long been saying that the TTP and other anti-Pakistan armed groups operate from Afghan soil.

The Taliban government hosted peace talks between the TTP and Pakistani security officials to put an end to the violence in Pakistan. However, the talks collapsed last year over tough conditions from both sides.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif led a high-powered delegation in talks with senior Taliban leaders in Kabul in February with a single-point agenda to take action against the TTP.

There have been no cross-border attacks from the Afghan side for months, however, there has been a spike in the TTP attacks since the group ended a ceasefire in November.

The government has also stopped talks with the TTP and launched intelligence-based operations against the group, mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Explained | Taliban have put Afghan clock back to 1990s’ autocracy: UN report

New Delhi

Edited By: Mukul Sharma

Updated: Jun 11, 2023


An armed Talib guarding a security checkpoint in Kabul | Representative Photograph:(Reuters)

The United Nation Security Council's Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted its 14th annual report about the Taliban’s impact on the security situation in Afghanistan this month, in which it accused the regime of reverting to its "autocratic" policies of the late 1990s.

The connection between the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) remains strong and mutually beneficial for all the parties involved with the Taliban as current rulers of Afghanistan acting as the nucleus of the entire set-up harbouring terror activities, a latest UN report has indicated.

The report highlights that terrorist groups are now able to freely operate under the Taliban's authority in Afghanistan, posing a significant threat of terrorism in the country and the wider region.

The report further describes that the Taliban's relationship with Al-Qaeda and TTP remains robust and symbiotic, enabling other terrorist groups to operate more freely under the Taliban's rule except for the ones that it sees as its rival.

The UNSC’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted its 14th annual report about the Taliban’s impact on the security situation in Afghanistan this month, in which it accused the regime of reverting to its "autocratic" policies of the late 1990s.

Taliban is allowing Afghanistan to be used for attack against other nations

Contrary to the Taliban's promises and subsequent claims of not allowing Afghan soil to be used for attacks against other countries, the report reveals that they have been harboring and actively supporting the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

In another contradiction, while the Taliban maintains ties with various terrorist entities, it has sought counter-terrorism assistance from member states in its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIL-K), which it considers its primary rival.

“The Taliban leadership shows no signs of bending to pressure for reform or compromise, in the hope of earning international political recognition,” the report said, adding that Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada has been “proudly resistant” to external pressure to moderate his policies.
Taliban is not honoring Doha agreement: UN report

The Taliban has failed to fulfill its counter-terrorism obligations as outlined in the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the United States and the Taliban, the UN report said.

What does the Taliban in Afghanistan mean for Pakistan?

Unlike the popular optics of August 201 showing Pakistani establishment mingling with Taliban as an apparent mark of US’ departure from the region, the snakes Islamabad has fed for decades have come to bite Pakistan itself.

The report underscores that the tight bond between the Afghan Taliban and TTP, similar to their relationship with Al-Qaeda, is unlikely to dissipate. This situation puts Pakistan to the test and raises the risk of heightened violence on both sides of the border.
Taliban shows no signs of reform

The report, the first to cover the entirety of the Taliban's period in power, indicates that the Taliban leadership shows no intention of reform or compromise to gain international political recognition. With no significant political opposition, the Taliban's unchecked authority has allowed foreign terrorist fighters sheltered by the group to become an increasingly significant security threat to neighboring countries.

Taliban, Al-Qaeda ties: Afghanistan a safe haven for terror

While the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Aiman al-Zawahiri in a Kabul house connected to Taliban's acting Interior Minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, did lead to a sense of distrust among its members, according to the latest UN report, Afghanistan continues to be a safe haven for Al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda aims to strengthen its position in Afghanistan and has been collaborating with the Taliban, supporting the regime, and safeguarding senior Taliban figures.

Al-Qaeda maintains a low profile, utilising the country as an ideological and logistical hub for mobilisation, recruitment, and covertly rebuilding external operational capabilities. Al-Qaeda finances its activities through core funding and donations, including the use of hawala services and cryptocurrencies.

ISIL-K 'most serious terrorist threat'

ISIL-K has been identified as the most serious current terrorist threat in Afghanistan, neighboring countries, and Central Asia, according to member states.

Also read | Exclusive: 'Why is the world neglecting Afghan women?'

The group has enhanced its operational capabilities and freedom of movement within Afghanistan, aiming to sustain a high pace of mostly low-impact attacks while sporadically executing high-impact actions to incite sectarian conflicts and destabilise the region in the medium to long term.

Over the past year, ISIL-K has claimed responsibility for more than 190 suicide bomb attacks targeting major cities, resulting in the death or injury of approximately 1,300 people.
Taliban rule in Afghanistan so far

Barely a month after coming to power, the Taliban banned girls from secondary education in September 2021.

On December 21, 2022, the Taliban banned women from attending universities.

WION first reported in January 2023 when the Taliban-ruled in Balkh province that male doctors can no longer treat female patients.

The Taliban stormed to power virtually unchallenged after the withdrawal of US-led forces from the country in the first week of August 2021. The regime has not received international recognition especially due to its imposition of anti-women decrees.

Pakistan: Why liberal Pashtuns are supporting the Afghan government

The Afghan Taliban enjoy significant support in Pakistan's northwestern region, but progressive Pashtuns are wary of their potential return to power in Afghanistan. They are now rooting for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Pakistani authorities accuse liberal Pashtun groups of destabilizing the country at Afghanistan's behest

It is generally believed that most people in Pakistan's northwestern areas support the Taliban because of their own inclination toward Islamism, but the reality is somewhat different. It is true that the Islamist group is liked by many in the region, but the number of people who oppose the Taliban and the Pakistani state's alleged support to the outfit has also increased manifold in the past two decades.

Most of these ethnic Pashtuns are wary of a never-ending war in their region and blame both the Taliban and Islamabad for the devastation in their areas.

As the Taliban are gaining strength in Afghanistan, liberal Pashtuns fear it is just a matter of time before Islamists make a comeback in Pakistan's northwestern areas, too.

There are already reports of Pakistani citizens holding Taliban flags and chanting Islamist slogans at rallies in areas close to the Afghan border. Islamic clerics in various parts of the country are also soliciting support for the Afghan Taliban and calling for donations.

This comes amid rapid Taliban advances in Afghanistan ahead of the complete withdrawal of NATO troops by September.

 

Opposition to the Taliban

Progressive Pashtuns recently held a convention in Charsadda, a town in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, to discuss the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

They denounced the Taliban's assaults on Afghan forces.

They also condemned the United States' Doha deal with the Taliban , saying it practically legitimized the militant group.

The convention, which was composed of leading Pashtun nationalist parties, intellectuals, academics and left-leaning political workers, called for an immediate cease-fire across Afghanistan to pave the way for peace talks.

The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), an anti-war group, has also held massive rallies in several parts of the province in the past few weeks. The PTM has condemned the Taliban and expressed its support for the Afghan government.
Support for Ashraf Ghani

Said Alam Mehsud, a PTM leader, believes that the Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan would suffer immensely if the Taliban managed to take over Kabul. "We support President Ashraf Ghani's government because it is legitimate. The Taliban are Pakistani mercenaries who want to topple an internationally recognized government," he told DW.

"The Taliban destroy schools, stop women from working, hand down inhuman punishments and kill innocent civilians. How can we support them?" he said.

On the contrary, Ghani's government, according to Mehsud, carried out several development projects in Afghanistan. The human rights situation has also improved under his administration, he added.

Bushra Gohar, a Pashtun politician and former lawmaker, agrees with Mehsud. "The PTM and other Pashtun groups are supporting Ghani because our people don't want to see the return of the Taliban's barbaric rule," she told DW.

PAKISTAN: HOW ISLAMIST MILITANCY WRECKED A TRIBAL WOMAN'S LIFE

A hard life

Life is hard for Pakistan's tribal women. For Baswaliha, a 55-year-old widow, life became even more painful after she lost her son in 2009, and her husband in 2010 — both in terrorist attacks. Baswaliha lives in Galanai, a town in the tribal Mohmand district that shares a border with Afghanistan. The area was hit hard by the Taliban insurgency following the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.   1234567

She said that, despite Taliban advances, Afghans are revolting against Islamists. "We see an uprising against the Taliban in Afghanistan. People are taking to the streets to show support to their government and the security forces."

Samina Afridi, a Peshawar-based political analyst, says Pashtuns on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border want education, human rights and democracy, but the Taliban are against that.

The 'Taliban project'

Pakistani authorities have long accused liberal Pashtun groups, including the PTM, of destabilizing the country at Afghanistan's behest.

The PTM has gained considerable strength in the past four years, drawing tens of thousands of people to its protest rallies. Its supporters are critical of the war on terror, which they say has ravaged Pashtun areas in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Sarfraz Khan, the former head of the Area Study Center at the University of Peshawar, believes that if Ghani's government is toppled in Afghanistan, the PTM leadership in Pakistan will be targeted by both Islamists and Pakistani authorities.

Experts say the consequences of targeting progressive Pashtuns could be catastrophic for the northwestern region. Khan says these groups, which have so far been nonviolent, could take up arms.

Former lawmaker and activist Gohar says Islamabad needs to change its policy toward the Afghan conflict by ending its "proxy war" and the "Taliban project."

"The UN must make sure that the Taliban's Doha office and their sanctuaries in Pakistan and elsewhere be immediately closed and that it imposes sanctions on the Taliban leaders. They should also be tried for war crimes. Sanctions should also be imposed on countries that are aiding and abetting the Taliban," she said, adding that the "Afghan genocide" must stop now.

TTP’s mentors

Ali Muhammad Siddiqi 

Published December 29, 2022 

WITH the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan back in the killing business with renewed ferocity, it is time we took a look at its ideological moorings. 

In a nutshell, like the communist parties of yore, the TTP’s aim is the destruction of the existing order (run by infidels, as defined by it) — an idea instilled into the TTP brains by mentors opposed to the very concept of a nation state.

Osama bin Laden never headed the TTP formally. He couldn’t, because the name Pakistan was there. But the Al Qaeda chief and the man who succeeded him, Ayman al-Zawahiri, had a lasting impression on TTP philosophy.

Both were indifferent to the interests of non-Arab states, regarded such Muslim countries as Iran and Turkey their enemies, and never cared about Central Asian states, except as a recruitment ground.

While opposition to the nation state idea doesn’t necessarily zoom in on Pakistan, the tragedy was that both OBL and al-Zawahiri had little love for Pakistan even though this country was their operational base. This selfishness betrayed a harsh reality: their political philosophy evolved in statelessness.

OBL was a pariah in Saudi Arabia, and al-Zawahiri an Egyptian fugitive who faced execution in his country. Both chose to work in Pakistan because of the respect they enjoyed from the people simply because they were Arab. Their base was the Af-Pak region, and they didn’t know and didn’t care to know what and where the Durand Line was.

They moved freely on both sides and found the 2,400-kilometre long mountainous sanctuary and the tribal people’s hospitality ideal for pursuing their international ‘Islamic’ agenda, though this ‘Islamic’ fervour had an Arab bias. More regretfully, al-Zawahiri had an anti-Pakistan tilt from the very beginning, and OBL did nothing to discourage it.

OBL and al-Zawahiri had a lasting impression on TTP philosophy.

OBL’s own speeches on Pakistani soil reflected a worldview that didn’t take into consideration Pakistan’s concerns. In many speeches, he spoke passionately about Palestine and talked also about Chechnya and the Rohingya, but hardly made any reference to Kashmir. I would be happy if some reader were to correct me.

Al-Zawahiri, on the contrary, actively pursued his anti-Pakistan agenda. His specialty was organising anti-government coups, working on potential collaborators in the armed forces of Egypt and other Arab countries, and having several nationalities. On one of his fake passports, he even visited the US on a fund-raising campaign.

In Pakistan, his most criminal act was the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in 1995, even though Osama didn’t believe Al Qaeda should annoy Pakistan.

Al-Zawahiri was also involved in the Lal Masjid uprising in Islamabad, and was in contact with Abdul Rashid and Abdul Aziz, the men who had turned the mosque into an arsenal and brainwashed and trained ‘commandos’ who often raided Islamabad’s shops and confiscated ‘obscene’ magazines.

It is also alleged al-Zawahiri had a role in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. He became Al Qaeda chief after Osama bin Laden was killed in an American raid.

In his monumental book, Descent into Chaos, Ahmed Rashid gives a chilling account of Afghan Taliban’s inroads into Pakistan when Hamid Karzai was the ruler, and says things which Pakistan must know could be replicated if the now defunct Fata were to be handed over to the TTP.

Afghan Taliban and fighters from other Muslim countries, writes Rashid, “worked in Pakistan’s Fata region, helping train a new generation of Tali­ban and Pakistani extremists in the arts of bomb-making and fund-raising. […] In 2007 many of these militants were to fight alongside the Pakistani Taliban as they ext­ended their writ across the North-West Frontier Province”.

With Al Qaeda’s help, the Taliban established a “lethal cottage industry”, manufacturing imp­rovised explosive devices in tribal hou­seholds. Soon, says Rashid, “the Taliban would be using the same IEDs against Pakistani forces”.

More gruesome, by 2006, they had executed 120 tribal leaders who had disagreed with them; by 2008 more than 4,000 Uzbek fighters were active in what then was Fata and were pushing for the Talibanisation of the entire NWFP.

The renewal of TTP activity is marked by brutality, as seen by the recent beheading of two people for their purported spying for the security forces. Clearly, the most unfortunate phenomenon at present is the mysterious if not duplicitous behaviour of the Kabul regime.

Ignoring the recent exchange of artillery fire across the border, the Kabul regime has not come clean on its policy towards terrorist groups operating from its soil. In fact, it is obvious that the TTP’s logistics base in the former Fata cannot sustain its current level of militancy and that it has no choice but to have safe havens in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s greatest asset is the tribal people’s abhorrence of TTP killers. Islamabad thus has to build on the people’s sentiments rather than expect meaningful cooperation from the ungrateful Kabul regime.

The writer is Dawn’s External Ombudsman and an author.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2022

‘Made-in-Pakistan Jihad’ 

and the TTP

The TTP threatens the Pakistani state

ByAgha Iqrar Haroon

A Letter from Prometheus

What happened in Bannu CTD Centre has reaffirmed the skills and firepower of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that kept engaging Pakistani security forces for over 48 hours fighting inside the building. This incident reminds us of what happened in GHQ Rawalpindi on 10–11 October 2009. Operation Janbaz cleared the building but left a sense that nothing is secure in Pakistan. Since then the Pakistan Army had been trying to establish a sense of security among citizens and the TTP has been engaging Pakistan in an unending fight that is still going on.

Operation Zarb e Azb and Operation Raddul Fasad tried to defeat terrorism but it has never been defeated and the multi-headed serpent of terrorism is still alive. I fear that it will remain alive till Pakistan will keep engaging itself in Afghan issues and keep feeding Afghans.

I served in Afghanistan as a journalist during 1995-97 and then covered the so-called War On Terror from 2001 to  2006. This field assignment helped me to understand the currents and undercurrents of the Afghan war and the Afghan mindset. I believe the TTP could not be formed and could not be in the swing if it did not have support from the Afghan Taliban but the majority of writers had been claiming and blaming TTP as just an Indian product. Yes, it got financial as well as technical support from Indian intelligence agencies but its survival within Afghanistan was within the active support and cordial relations with the Afghan Taliban. TTP foot soldiers had been helping the Afghan Taliban to defeat the Afghan Army in the past.

The Afghan problem is exceptionally complex; having multiple dimensions since 1979 and having been compromising the security of Pakistan. Some people claim the Afghan war is a big business for many in Pakistan and they cite allegations of selling Stinger missiles and the Ojhri Camp blast of April 1988,the  known involvement of powerful groups in the drug and weapon business, the benefits of the Afghan Transit Trade and the Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees for those who had always been in power in Pakistan. These above-mentioned factors since 1979 are diamond mines for those who understand why Afghanistan is important for Pakistan.

The killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul in a US strike was enough to learn that the Afghan Taliban are still supporting terrorist outfits directly or indirectly or they are so weak that they cannot stop or purge terrorists using Afghan soil. We know the TTP leadership, including Mullah Fazlullah, had been living in Kunar province of Afghanistan with the perceivable support of the Afghan Taliban even before they captured Kabul. Everybody knows that Mullah Fazlullah was one of the biggest enemies of the Pakistan Army in the region but he had been living a comfortable life in the Kunar province and had been using Afghanistan as a launching pad for attacking Pakistan. There is no doubt and circumstantial evidence that the Indian intelligence agency RAW invested in forming TTP that had safe havens under Afghan Taliban-controlled areas. This situation could be considered as a linkage between the Afghan Taliban and the Indian network, but it had never come under discussion in Pakistan.

In one of my articles, “A year after the fall of Kabul” published in this newspaper on August 7, I categorically mentioned that the TTP problem had not been solved and negotiations with TTP would ultimately enhance the confidence of terrorists who were virtually destroyed by the Pakistan Army when Ashraf Ghani was in power in Kabul. Afghan Taliban are cutting the iron fence Pakistan installed during Ashraf Ghani’s tenure at the Pak-Afghan border and which was intact till the Afghan Taliban did not come into power. I believe soon we will find parts of this iron fence in some iron melting plants in Pakistan.

Do we remember that today’s Afghan Taliban are the second and third generations of the “Mujahedeen” who were crafted to destroy the regular army of Soviet Afghanistan? Mujahedeen smashed the Afghan government under “Operation Cyclone” and their second and third generations won the war against US-led 55-plus countries.

All stakeholders, particularly those who had been crying and protesting that “TTP is back” should be taken into confidence by the state and the political leadership must debate in the Parliament who started negotiations with TTP and on what conditions this new phase of dialogue was initiated.

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The USA launched the Afghan Jihad in the late 1970s against the former USSR.  This Jihad, having the code name of “Operation Cyclone”, was directly or indirectly manned by the military establishment of Pakistan. Pakistan effectively worked along with the CIA in changing the region as well as changing the mindset of the moderate Afghan and Pakistani societies. Whatever we are facing today is the bitter fruit of this tree we planted in the 1970s. TTP is nothing but a form of the Mujahedeen of the 1970s and the Afghan Taliban of the 1990s, having the same philosophy and quest of destroying an established state and its army; the only difference is that the target is Pakistan and the Pakistan Army instead of Afghanistan and its former Soviet state.

We were told by the state institutions that the Red Army of the former USSR ran away from Afghanistan by leaving a huge cache of arms worth billions of dollars behind the Amu Darya. However, things were otherwise. Background talks with former military men of the former USSR suggest that the decaying Communist era decided in principle to leave almost all weapons within Afghanistan and ordered its soldiers just to carry one gun and vehicles to take them out from the land of blood and destruction— Afghanistan.

Therefore, the Red Army by design left thousands of T-52 tanks, Mi-22 light helicopters, BM-21 Grad (moveable rocket launching pads), assault rifles like the AK-47, and millions of live bullets and RPGs behind in Afghanistan. Some former Soviet military officers claim that the decision was taken in the Politburo to leave weapons in Afghanistan so Afghans would have toys (weapons) to play with for the next three to four decades and keep destroying not only their own country, but Pakistan also,  which had  played a pivotal role in defeating the Red Army.

Former generals of the Red Soviet Army claim that the Soviet Union had a firm belief that radical extremists equipped with Soviet-made AK-47s would change the social fabric of Pakistan right after the departure of the Red Army because Afghans would start selling their weapons to private hands in Pakistan. However, the Soviet Army thought that the Pakistan Army could buy rocket launchers, BM-21 Grad, MI22, and tanks from Afghan Mujahideen, but this never happened and Pakistan Army never thought about this.

What has happened, has happened and we must move forward because there is no reverse gear in history. What we can do to safeguard our interests is the most important concern for people like me who have been covering Afghan issues for half of their lives.

I believe that all stakeholders, particularly those who had been crying and protesting that “TTP is back” should be taken into confidence by the state and the political leadership must debate in the Parliament who started negotiations with TTP and on what conditions this new phase of dialogue was initiated.

The state has never taken the public into confidence over the Afghan issue in the last 43 years but I believe we must do it now.