Killid Commentary
Last week Pakistani Taliban Waliullah Masoud, one of the closest to Hamkimullah Messud, the elusive leader of the Pakistani insurgents, announced that they are getting ready to support Afghan Taliban and fight against NATO and Afghan National Army in Afghanistan.
The announcement is a response to U.S. President Barak Obama’s decision of sending 30,000 “fresh” soldiers to reinforce those already fighting in Afghanistan. Consequently, Pakistani Taliban would have decided to send “new and fresh militias” to back Afghan Taliban’s fight against U.S. troops.
The first negative impact will fall on President Hamid Karzai’s initiative of opening talks with Afghan Taliban, which seems to be followed seriously. President Karzai and political experts believe that the only way to stop the war is by negotiating.
The condition, though, is Afghan Taliban commitment to be independent of any foreign links, mainly with Al Qaeda. Pakistani Taliban announcement goes in the opposite direction and contradicts statements made by Afghan Taliban on December 4th. The Taliban offer said the organisation has “no agenda of meddling in the internal affairs of other countries and is ready to give legal guarantees if foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan”.
It suggested that the Taliban is interested in negotiating an agreement with the United States involving a public Taliban renunciation of ties with al Qaeda, along with some undefined arrangements to enforce a ban al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan in return for a commitment to a timetable for withdrawal of foreign troops from the country (see IPS story in this issue.)
Some Afghan political experts believe that Afghan Taliban should refuse the offer because beyond spoiling a possible negotiation process, by deploying combatants in our country the Pakistani Taliban would deteriorate further Afghanistan’s security and increment the ongoing war.
Currently, Pakistani Taliban suffer a massive attack by the army of their country, following the government’s order of continuing it until defeating them. Sources say that within the last six months the insurgents have been damaged financially and physically and have lost most of their strategic bases in the northern area of Pakistan.
Few days ago, Pakistan’s government officials announced they could successfully conquer Taliban insurgents throughout South Waziristan and that military operations have been launched in North Waziristan and Urugzay area.
Other sources report that Pakistani Taliban would have put forward several proposals for undertaking peace talks, rejected by the government.
If these reports are correct, Pakistani Taliban’s announcement of their will to support Afghan Taliban is to be seen as an alternative to their own crisis, expanding into Afghanistan their own battlefield.
Moreover, as the link between Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda are evident, the intention would be to spoil any negotiation process between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban.
How could this be stopped?
On one side, the Afghan government should carry on talks with its Pakistani counterpart on this matter, while Afghan political factions and parties should clearly express their support to the Afghan government and Taliban foreseen negotiations.
Furthermore, those able to implement their social and political influence in the areas under Taliban control should encourage them to reject Pakistan’s insurgents in our territory because it would only make our war longer.
Taliban always claim that their fight is to protect Afghan independence. To allow Pakistani Taliban militias in Afghanistan would mean ignoring our territorial integrity, weakening the same independence Taliban declare to be pursuing.
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