There’s no such thing as a good Taliban!

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  • With Washington and Kabul repeatedly accusing Pakistan of supporting Haqqani Network, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif insists Pakistan has changed its policy and government will indiscriminately target all terrorists based in tribal areas 
  • Says Pakistan radicalised after being used in US-wanted jihad against Soviets, accuses US of ‘duplicity’, saying it supported jihadist groups in Syria while fighting them in Afghanistan

Putting an end to the debate pertaining to the demarcation between “good Taliban and bad Taliban”, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has made it clear that there is “no such thing as good Taliban”, asserting that Pakistan will go after all terrorist groups in its unfolding operation in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA), including insurgents who target neighboring Afghanistan in what would be a major shift in policy.

During an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, the defence minister said that the military offensive in NWA would target the Haqqani Network, a group affiliated with the Afghan Taliban that has been based in tribal area for more than three decades.

“We will eliminate all sorts of terrorists from our area without any exceptions,” said Asif. “If there are exceptions made, then the purpose of this operation will be defeated. It has to be without making any differentiation between our Taliban and their Taliban, or good Taliban and bad Taliban.”

Pakistan has long been accused by neighbors and US officials of backing jihadist groups as its proxies in Afghanistan and India. Some Pakistani officials in the past have described the Afghan Taliban and some other jihadist groups as “good,” while the government combats the more extreme “bad” militant organisations that turned on the Pakistani state.

In particular, Washington and Kabul have repeatedly accused Pakistan of supporting the Haqqani Network. However, Asif insisted Pakistan has changed its policy.

“They are all bad Taliban. There are no more good Taliban,” he said.

Islamabad is trying to convince Kabul to attack Pakistani Taliban groups that have taken refuge in eastern Afghanistan before and during the North Waziristan operation. Afghan authorities have indicated they won’t act unless they see Pakistan fighting Kabul’s enemies, such as the Haqqanis.

“If we have to get rid of these people, we have to get rid of them in totality, because this is something plaguing this area for three decades. Both sides of the Durand Line, Pakistan and Afghanistan, we are in dire trouble,” said Asif, referring to the border with Afghanistan.

However, such claims in the past of a tougher approach to militancy have been met with deep skepticism inside and outside Pakistan.

FATA Research Center Director Saifullah Mahsud said that according to his information, the Haqqani group had left North Waziristan before the operation.

“Pakistan has the opportunity of establishing its writ in North Waziristan now and stopping militants returning there,” said Mahsud.

Pakistan had appeared to be on the brink of launching the North Waziristan operation in January. It was put on hold as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif unveiled a last-ditch bid to hold peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban. That effort stalled weeks before the operation was finally announced. Many militants used that time to escape from North Waziristan, Asif said.

“From February until June, these people had ample time to disperse, and go to safer areas,” said Asif. “They must have gone across border and other parts of Pakistan also. They already had sanctuaries in Afghanistan.”

The defence minister said that Pakistan had intelligence on the whereabouts of the escaped militants and added, “We have to chase them”.

WE RADICALIZED BECAUSE OF US JIHAD:

The minister said that problem of militancy in Pakistan stemmed from the country’s “mistake” of allowing itself to be used by the US to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s by supporting the Islamist resistance there.

“We radicalised because they [the US] wanted jihad, a made-in-America jihad,” said Asif. “These groups were useful to them in the 80s. The groups were useful to us also, at some stage. So they have flourished. They have multiplied. We are paying a very heavy price for the radicalization of our religion in Pakistan.”

After the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan in the late 1980s, Pakistan continued to use jihadist groups to pursue its interests, including a branch that the country’s intelligence agencies turned on India, in the disputed region of Kashmir.

The defence minister accused the US of “duplicity,” saying it supported jihadist groups in Syria while fighting them in Afghanistan. He said that while Pakistan is criticized for using proxies, the U.S. and the Western world has done the same in Syria—where the armed opposition supported by Washington and others has come to be dominated by radical Islamist groups, a movement that is now also rampaging across Iraq.

“They are fighting the same people in Afghanistan and supporting them in Syria. I think this is shameful,” said Asif.

US officials say they have sought to back moderate elements of the Syrian rebellion and those elements to fight the more radical, jihadist groups within the anti-government camp.

 

2 COMMENTS

  1. TALIBAN -BUT PAKISTAN SENT THOUSANDS OF TALIBAN TO AFGANISTAN TO TOPPLE AND KILL ELECTED PREZ OF AFGANISTAN –BEFORE 9/11 WORLDTRADE CENTER EPISODE ..TALIBAN -YOUNG BOYS

  2. pakistani english administration has harmed the foundations of Islamic Culture in Pakistan since the breakup of east pakistan in 1971 nothing good has happened for grand great majority of the poors solution must be find to change english political system in force in Islamic Pakistan

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