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How Pakistan fooled the world and nurtured Taliban whereas pretending to combat terrorism

7 min read

Afghanistan is in turmoil after the swift and lightning offensive carried out by the Taliban final month to seize Kabul and successfully seizing management of the nation. Thousands fled the nation fearing a return to repressive regime of the Nineties and people who couldn’t reside beneath a palpable concern of persecution by the hands of their Talibani masters. 
Even although the state of affairs in Afghanistan is grim and dreary, it’s nonetheless a beneficial end result for its neighbour Pakistan, which has revelled in chaos and dysfunction in its neighbourhood and had lengthy sought to make use of the Taliban and different assorted terror teams to advance its geopolitical ambitions. 
With the ignominious withdrawal of the United States and the return of the Taliban to energy in Afghanistan, Pakistan has gained a strategic victory, establishing a pleasant and pliant authorities for the primary time in almost 2 many years. 
Throughout the lengthy struggle that the USA engaged the Taliban in, Pakistan has been taking part in either side, pretending to be a US ally whereas offering shelter and assist to Taliban management.
Since the inception of the Taliban again within the late Nineteen Eighties and the Nineties, Pakistan has been its principal benefactor. It had not solely educated armed mujahideen to combat the invading Soviet forces in Afghanistan but in addition helped facilitate the transition of a ragtag militia group into the Taliban, which later went on to put management of the nation from 1996 to 2001. 
Pakistan was then one of many solely three international locations to recognise the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan and the final one to interrupt formal ties with them after the US-led NATO invasion within the wake of the dual tower assaults. 
During the time, the Taliban was in energy in Afghanistan, it remained as a Pakistani marionette, whose strings have been pulled from Islamabad. It collaborated with the Taliban to forge ties with central Asian terror outfits equivalent to Al Qaeda and enlist them to grasp their nefarious designs. In return, the Taliban acquired money incentives, arms and ammunition, and an unfettered passage via the porous borders between the 2 international locations. 
When the US-led forces invaded Afghanistan, the Talibani leaders, in addition to the highest Al Qaeda commanders, bolted for his or her protected hideouts in Pakistan. For over twenty years, Pakistan supplied protected havens to Taliban leaders to chill their heels and organise their resistance. Wanted Talibani leaders and commanders moved round Pakistan with none restrictions. 
“Pakistan can put pressure on Taliban… they have a very deep relationship, that is why Pakistan’s spy chief surfaced in Kabul, there are complaints even that Pakistan had influence in shaping the present government” former Pakistani Senator @a_siab tells me #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/oec41cBiUF— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) September 14, 2021
Pakistan additionally threw open Military hospitals to deal with the Taliban terrorists who obtained wounded of their guerrilla struggle in Afghanistan or whereas crossing the border. Al Qaeda terrorist Osama Bin Laden’s refuge within the Pakistani backwater city of Abbottabad was an affidavit to Islamabad’s resolute assist to terrorism and its willingness to supply sanctuary to UN-designated terrorists and terror teams. 
Even because the western forces have been busy routing the Taliban from Afghanistan, Islamabad, alternatively, was occupied within the rehabilitation of the group. They supplied help to maintain the Taliban, whilst the phobia outfit misplaced hundreds of foot troopers in opposition to the NATO forces. 
Several US intelligence businesses and defence consultants have been cautioning the USA in opposition to Pakistan, warning them that Islamabad’s pursuits have been at battle with the United States and that it was taking part in a harmful double-game, falsely claiming to assist the United States’ in its struggle on terror whereas clandestinely extending ethical, emotional and tactical assist to the Taliban. 
Investigations reveal Pakistani assist in serving to the Taliban
Recently, US defence analyst Sarah Chayes in an interview with CNN defined how Pakistan’s ISI ran a complicated marketing campaign for reinstalling the Taliban in energy. When requested if the Taliban had cleverly utilised the 20 years time to construct its functionality and stake its declare to energy, Chayes mentioned it wasn’t the phobia group however Pakistan’s intelligence company ISI that used its assets cleverly to assist topple the US-backed Ashraf Ghani authorities in Afghanistan.
A documentary launched in 2012, virtually a decade earlier than the autumn of Kabul to resurgent Taliban, make clear the double-dealing of the entities that recognized themselves because the allies of the United States however have been covertly working to undermine its mission in Afghanistan. Titled as ‘The Secret War’, the documentary was a end result of the six-month lengthy investigation carried out by Smith and Stephen Grey and which supplied a window into interminably long-drawn-out struggle the United States had waged in opposition to Islamic terror outfits equivalent to Al Qaeda and the Taliban
During the investigation, Smith and Grey discovered that the American troopers stationed alongside the Afghanistan-Pakistan border have been sad with the latter, for his or her covert assist to the insurgency and terrorism focused in opposition to the United States. One of the US troops, who wished to stay nameless, confided to the reporters that the bottom troopers manning the border reportedly complained to the seniors in regards to the Pakistani complicity in serving to the Talibani and Al Qaeda terrorists cross the border and infiltrate into Afghanistan.
Pakistani Army and Air Force allegedly collaborate with the Taliban to suppress the Afghan resistance
Years later, because the Taliban wrest management of Afghanistan, Pakistan was on the forefront to grant legitimacy to the organisation and allegedly lengthen navy assist to convey the Panjshir Valley, the final remaining holdout of the Afghan resistance, beneath the Talibani management. Several studies that surfaced within the information hinted at Pakistani involvement in serving to the Taliban in its offensive in Panjshir. 
The studies claimed that the Taliban’s marketing campaign in opposition to the Afghan resistance in Panjshir was aided by the Pakistani Air Force and Army. They reportedly bombed the Panjshir Valley and fought in opposition to the rebels who have been against the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, one more illustration of how Pakistan has been furthering the curiosity of the Taliban. 
ISI chief Faiz Hameed had landed in Kabul days earlier than the Taliban mounted a large air and floor offensive in opposition to the Northern Resistance in Panjshir valley.
Pakistani complicity within the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan
For years, Pakistan has pulled the wool over the West’s eyes by making misleading claims of assist to its struggle in opposition to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Far from selling western pursuits, it was assiduously working to safeguard, nurture and fortify the Taliban. When the west lastly determined to name it quits of its disastrous marketing campaign in Afghanistan, the Pakistan-backed Taliban displayed exceptional dexterity in seizing management of Afghanistan. 
The lightning offensive of the Taliban, the simultaneous fall of Afghan provinces, the give up of the Afghan forces, all trace in direction of a mega plan hatched to put management of Afghanistan. In the present context and given their historic affiliation with the Taliban, it gained’t be a wild exaggeration to surmise Pakistani involvement within the complete takeover of Afghanistan. 
The Pakistani complicity in fostering the Taliban was acknowledged by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken throughout his first testimony earlier than Congress for the reason that terror group took management of Kabul. Blinken said that Pakistan is chargeable for harbouring the Taliban and the terrorists from the proscribed Haqqani Network. 
It can be price noting that earlier this month, former Afghan vice chairman Amrullah Saleh too accused Pakistan of being in cahoots with the Taliban. He alleged that the Taliban are being micromanaged by Pakistan’s infamous intelligence company–the ISI, including that Islamabad is in command of the war-ravaged nation successfully as a colonial energy.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has additionally been all reward for the Taliban after it stormed the capital and exerted its management over Afghanistan. Days after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Khan heaped praises on the phobia group, congratulating them on their victory and asserting that “Afghanistan had broken the shackles of slavery”.
Well, this isn’t the primary time that Khan has sympathised with the Taliban. Time and once more, Khan has hailed the Taliban and spoken in assist of the phobia outfit. It is his persistent reward and admiration for the Taliban which has earned him the moniker of ‘Taliban Khan’. With the nation’s Prime Minister commiserating with the Taliban, it’s anyone’s guess how enthusiastic the institution can be to champion the reason for the Taliban.
Taliban—an offshoot of the Pakistani institution
As the world grapples with the brand new actuality of a restive Afghanistan beneath the Taliban, it might be advisable to account for the complicity of Pakistan in its present predicament. There is little doubt that Afghanistan would quickly devolve right into a Pakistani outpost, the place an eclectic group of terrorists would as soon as once more discover shelter and a conducive surroundings to wage Islamic jihad in opposition to the non-believers.
It is due to this fact of nice consequence to account that not solely is Pakistan harbouring and nurturing the Taliban, however additionally it is the unique fountainhead of the phobia group, the supply from which the Taliban attracts its energy and maybe works to fulfil its goals. The world can be in for one more impolite shock if it continues to show a blind eye to Pakistani shenanigans and refuses to deal with it for what it’s: a rogue terror state.