TTA’s parallel government in Afghanistan

Pakistan must “keep its cool” in the days to come

The Taliban, who emerged as a major force in Afghanistan, during the raging civil war which took a toll of millions of lives, were known for their repressive policies. They reigned after assuming control of nearly 95 percent of Afghan territory and were led by the one-eyed cleric Mullah Muhammad Omar. When the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the alleged perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks, the US forces and their allies invaded Afghanistan. Pakistan, which was the supporter of the Taliban, switched horses’ midstream, ditching the Taliban and siding with the US.

Unfortunately, the US and the allied forces ranging up to 1, 50,000 soldiers at their peak, failed to subdue the Taliban. Regrouping, the Taliban wreaked havoc on the Allied forces and when the going got tough, looking for pleas to justify their failures, the US started to blame Pakistan for running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. Pakistan was accused of clandestinely supporting the Taliban in their raids on allied forces in Afghanistan and for providing them a safe haven in Pakistan.

Matters came to a head in 2011. In January, Raymond Davis – a two-bit CIA contractor – was arrested after he shot dead two Pakistanis in broad daylight. Classified material pertaining to Pakistan’s nuclear assets and other vulnerable and strategic targets was recovered from Raymond Davis. On May 2, US Navy Marines raided Abbottabad and reportedly eliminated the Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The clandestine action led to accusations against Pakistan of secretly harbouring the wanted fugitive. On November 25, US forces conducted a pre-meditated assault on Pakistani check post at Salala, killing 25 Pakistani soldiers. Pak-US relations came to their lowest ebb and Pakistan shut down the Ground Logistics lines of Communication for US and NATO forces running through Pakistan as well gave notice to CIA drones operating from Pakistani airfields.

Slowly and gradually matters improved. After the drawdown of US and allied forces from Afghanistan, in December 2014, Pakistan was urged to bring the Afghan Taliban to the negotiations table. With great effort, Pakistan managed to bring the TTA (Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan) on board in July 2015. The Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) was installed, with Pakistan, China and the US extending support as observers and coordinators while the Afghan Government and TTA were expected to be negotiating for peace. The first round of talks went well but on the eve of the second round, the news of Mullah Omar’s demise was leaked and the meeting was called off.

Mullah Omar’s successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was the de-facto leader for the last two years, tried to prove his mettle as a ferocious fighter by launching even deadlier assaults and over ran Kunduz and inflicted a telling blow to the ISIS at Nangarhar.

The pressure on Pakistan remained to bring the TTA to the negotiations table and stop providing a safe haven to its leadership.

The ground situation in Afghanistan is that the TTA is running a parallel government in Afghanistan. They have their own legal system, judiciary, legislation and control over most of the rural terrain. The TTA leadership is located and based in Afghanistan. Its leadership sometimes visits Pakistan under the garb of Afghan refugees for medical treatment but remains operational in Afghanistan.

One would have expected the US and Afghanistan to be more understanding of Pakistan’s predicament and its earnest efforts to eliminate terror bases in Pakistan through Operation Zarb-e-Azb. Instead, allegations and insults are hurled on Pakistan at a regular basis. Eight F-16 Block 52 fighter aircraft for Pakistan to be partially funded by the US were blocked by the US on the plea that Pakistan was not doing enough to bring the TTA for the peace talks. To rub salt in the wound, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, transiting from Iran to Afghanistan incognito, via Pakistan was targeted at the Baloch town of Noshki via a CIA drone and eliminated. This has served as a serious jolt to the peace talks. The new Taliban Amir, Maulvi Haibatullah Akhunzada is in no mood of smoking the peace pipe in the near future but the Afghan and US Presidents are gung-ho regarding the assassination of Mullah Akhtar Mansour. Six ‘facilitators’ of a militant organisation surrendered themselves to the Frontier Corps at a ceremony in Noshki early this week. These facilitators regularly helped militants carry out subversive and anti-peace activities in different parts of Balochistan. They will now be interrogated for their role in the successful drone attack on Mullah Akhtar Mansour. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s proposal for the fencing of the Pak-Afghan border has met with hostility by the Afghanis. They have fired incessantly at the workers installing the fence, disrupting their project. The other cause of the bad blood is the prolonged stay of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Their camps are drug trafficking and prostitution dens, while vested interests of the ilk of Indian spy agency RAW find willing recruit for their subversive activities in the Afghan refugee camps. Time and again, Pakistan has asked the Afghan government to facilitate the return of the Afghans to their own homes but there has been no positive response.

It appears that the Afghan government and the US are happy to make Pakistan the scapegoat of their own failures. The Trillions of dollars spent on the training and capacity building of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) has been a complete waste. Its personnel are neither motivated, nor capable of taking on the TTA. There have been numerous instances of desertions along with their sophisticated weaponry, further depleting the strength of the ANSF. Even when Kunduz was captured by the TTA, the ANSF failed to retake the important city till international forces arrived for their support.

The alarming state of affairs is that the Afghan security agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) is badly compromised by the infiltration of RAW operatives, whose propaganda and machinations to destabilise Pakistan are at their peak nowadays.

Under the circumstances, Pakistan has its work cut out. It has to face a four prong assault: Border hostility by the Afghan forces, conspiracies being hatched by RAW, pressure by the US and terror attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), whose leadership is also operating freely from Afghanistan, wreaking havoc in Pakistan with impunity.

Pakistan must maintain its cool. It should insist on the early return of Afghan refugees and better border management and control. Pakistan and Afghanistan share a more than 2,500-kilometer porous frontier, but Kabul disputes the border and has opposed repeated fencing attempts by Islamabad. Both sides say militants use the border to conduct anti-state acts in their respective countries. It is imperative that an understanding to this regard is reached at an early date so that instead of hurling allegations, there is joint patrolling of the border. Unprovoked attacks must cease. It would be too much to expect the Afghan Government to assume administrative control of Afghanistan. Ashraf Ghani, like his predecessor Hamid Karzai does not enjoy any authority. His predicament is more precarious, because he is heading a unity government and sharing power with his nemesis and arch rival Abdullah Abdullah. The solution is making the environment conducive to peace talks. Pakistan can lend a helping hand provided it is extended respect for its sovereignty and its intentions.