Mohammad Jamil
After last week’s car bombing outside National Directorate for Security’s building in Kabul that killed 64 people and injured more than 300, the US State Department reportedly asked Pakistan to take concrete action against the Haqqani network. In fact, Afghan intelligence agency is dominated by former president Hamid Karzai’s loyalists, and they inform the Afghan government that Pakistan is behind every terror attack in Afghanistan. Commenting on Afghan government’s claim that Pakistan supported the group that carried out the attack, the director of the US State Department’s Press Office, Elizabeth Trudeau, in a news briefing said: “We have consistently expressed our concerns at the highest level of the government of Pakistan about their continued tolerance for Afghan Taliban groups such as the Haqqani network operating from Pakistani soil.” Within hours of the attack, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani vowed “vengeance for each drop of blood spilled.”
His chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, cancelled a May 2 visit to Pakistan, citing the findings of a preliminary investigation. The problem is that India is throwing the spanner in the works, and does everything to roil relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and sabotage the proposed dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Last month, representatives of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) comprising China, Afghanistan, USA and Pakistan met in Islamabad. The Taliban so far are reluctant to join any peace talks initiated under the QCG umbrella as their demands for unfreezing their assets and removal of their names from the UN blacklist have not yet been met. Afghan president Ashraf Ghani has categorically refused to release any Taliban prisoners or accept their preconditions for the talks.
According to media reports the Taliban are critical of the presence of US troops in the country and want them to leave, which President Ashraf Ghani cannot afford. The Taliban have stepped up attacks on government and foreign targets in Afghanistan, as they hope to conquer as much territory as possible to negotiate with the Kabul government from the position of strength. Government representatives from Pakistan, USA, China and Kabul have been trying hard to persuade the Taliban to discuss a new peace proposal to end war in Afghanistan. However, the players have finally come to the conclusion that there can be no peace in the region unless the Taliban are given their due share in the Afghan government. Last month, the Taliban said it would not take part in peace talks brokered by Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and the United States.
Following a meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group made up of representatives of the four countries in Kabul in February, officials said they expected direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban to begin in early March. But that was not to be, as the Taliban, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, publicly denied they would be participating in any upcoming talks in Islamabad. “With the American troops remaining in the country conducting airstrikes and special operations raids in support of the Kabul government, the Taliban would not participate in talks, the group said in a statement. It added: “Islamic Emirate once again reiterates that unless the occupation of Afghanistan is ended, black lists eliminated, and innocent prisoners freed, such futile misleading negotiations will not bear any results.”
Since the departure of the coalition of US and NATO Troops ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) from Afghanistan, the Taliban have hit hard and challenged the writ of the Afghan government, which forced Pakistani government to take action on its side of the border to eliminate the non-cooperating Taliban. The Zarb-e-Azab has of course reduced their areas of influence. The war-battered country actually needs a grand national reconciliation that, arguably, stands a good chance of coming about if Afghan government and the Taliban show flexibility. During Karazi ere, several Afghan political and ethnic entities also wanted to be part of the peace dialogue during Karzai tenure. He insisted implausibly that his regime represented every hue and stripe of the Afghan polity, which those entities did not accept. Anyhow, the Taliban would not be averse to the peace deal if other parties show due respect for the erstwhile kings and kingmakers in Afghanistan – Pashtuns.
In the past, Afghanistan rulers had ruled many regions of the subcontinent; and even part of Punjab was ruled by Afghanistan. Earlier, Moghul kings including Akbar the Great had ruled parts of Afghanistan. But despite such changes, original Afghanistan remained intact and no outsider was able to occupy Afghanistan permanently. Afghanistan survived Soviet onslaught. After 9/11, the US and its allies invaded Afghanistan, and had announced victory within weeks.
Of course, certain elements across the border are opposed to an improved relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially former president Hamid Karzai and his close aides, who do not wish to see bonhomie between the two countries. Having that said, the US should not be taken in by the ruses of NDS and leaders of the Northern Alliance.
