Why Pakistan accuses Taliban of doing what it has been doing to India — abetting terrorism

For decades, India has been accusing Pakistan of doing the exact same thing. Which is, controlling the terror tap by hosting terrorist safe havens on its territory and infiltrating them into India — bleeding India “with a thousand cuts.”

Much before the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which Pakistan has never acknowledged leave alone apologized for, long before the 2001 Agra talks which broke down because of then Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf’s position on Kashmir, and even before the 1999 Kargil conflict, Pakistan has used terror as an instrument of state policy towards India.

Pakistan’s refusal to shut down its safe havens for terrorists, its belief that it could turn the tap on and off for “good” and “bad” terrorists — the good ones, presumably, were those targetting India, and the bad ones who turned the target inwards — is now coming to haunt it.

It’s cruel, perhaps, to quote the Bible here — you reap what you sow. And when you sow the whirlwind, you reap famine and floods and disaster every season. No one should wish that on anyone, leave alone 200 million people who live next door.

It’s not the people’s fault, of course. They try their best, electing who they do. But the Pakistan military and ISI are so powerful that they will not just personally destroy you if you refuse to follow orders, but have perverted an entire nation for the last 75 years because they want to remain in charge. Just ask Nawaz Sharif, living in exile for the second time in his life — at least he’s in balmy London this time, not in godforsaken Attock jail to which he was sent after the 1999 coup by Musharraf.

Certainly, Pakistan is nervous. On the one hand, the Pakistani economy is barely holding on for dear life with a $3 billion tranche from the IMF, and on the other, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is demanding the application of Sharia law in territories bordering Afghanistan.

Neglecting neighbourly duties

Back to the Pakistan army’s hand-wringing this past week about the Taliban government in Kabul. At the 258th meeting of all the corps commanders, which was presided over by Pakistan Army chief General Asim Munir, the detailed briefing on the security situation pointed a direct finger at the Taliban government’s inability to shut down the TTP.

Two days prior, Pakistani defence minister Khwaja Asif had scolded Afghanistan for “neglecting its duties as a neighbourly and fraternal country.” He added, with some anger, that Pakistan had provided refuge to several million Afghans for the last 40 years.

The irony, of course, is that when the Taliban walked into Kabul on 15 August 2021, the Pakistani military clapped the loudest — behind closed doors of course. Having supported the Taliban against the Americans and against elected governments in Afghanistan for the previous 20 years, Rawalpindi believed this was their moment.

For decades they had talked about the concept of “strategic depth” in Afghanistan — at last, their time had come. Faiz Hameed, the former ISI chief, was so cocky in his behaviour that he was photographed sipping a cup of tea in full public view at the entrance to the Kabul Serena hotel, instead of meeting the Taliban behind closed doors.

According to Dawn, quoting, “the banned TTP continues to enjoy safe havens and managed to get its hands on sophisticated weapons as it operates freely in Afghanistan,” and it was the mastermind of a terror attack on a military garrison in Zhob, Baluchistan, in which 9 soldiers and one civilian were killed. The TTP militants had used M-16 rifles, carried night-vision equipment and wore uniforms commonly used by the US military in the Zhob attack, Dawn reported.

It is true that TTP militants are using sophisticated military gear left behind by US soldiers. Considering the TTP and Afghan Taliban are very close, it’s more than likely that they are sharing the loot.

Taliban refutes 

Certainly, no one in their wildest dreams in Rawalpindi would have thought that their blood brothers, the Afghan Taliban, were going to do them what they have been doing to India for some time. It was not supposed to turn out this way.

But here’s another of those delicious ironies that make foreign policy reporting worthwhile. Just like Pakistan routinely rejects all accusations that India makes about its policy of state-sponsored infiltration, Afghanistan is now doing exactly the same.

“We do not allow them (TTP) to live and operate in Afghanistan. We have faced consequences of wars and do not want others to suffer…This is a problem, but it is also the responsibility of the other side (Pakistan) to find a solution,” Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid told Dawn.

Afghan upon Afghan upon Afghan will tell you in Kabul and elsewhere that the “Pakistanis” have “destroyed us”, that they have refused to allow peace and stability in Afghanistan. That they never allowed the Americans to stabilise the country, or let India become the regional market towards which the rest of the region gravitated.

As the Taliban settle down to rule — despite no international recognition of their status — and take on the traits of the Afghans they once despised, they are beginning to realise what the Pakistani military establishment is capable of, which is to fully control Afghanistan. Which self-respecting nation is going to allow that?

And as relations between the Taliban government in Kabul and Rawalpindi worsen, here’s the other question: What does this do to ties between Delhi and Kabul?

(Edited by Theres Sudeep)