Integrity Score 380
No Records Found
No Records Found
Chapter 2 continues…
It opened a space in the political affairs of the nation for a third movement rather than the two warring hostile factions, Hekhmatyar’s Khalqis and Rabbani’s Parchamis. With the Taleban’s declaration of their commitment to establish peace, security, and the formation of a national assembly, many local communities in Kandahar became supportive of the Taleban cause, to bring the internecine warfare to an end.
Apart from the Kandahar-based leadership and its youthful troops, the Taleban rank and file included three other elements. These elements were, first, the ethnic Pashtuns who reflagged themselves as Taleban either for reasons of prudence or for reasons of ethnic solidarity. Secondly, some were members of the Khalq faction of the erstwhile communist party and finally others included Arab combatants from Osama Bin Laden’s extremist 055 Brigade and other disaffected Muslim elements from other parts of the world. The prominence of the last element was described by the UN Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to Afghanistan as “extremely dangerous” development and which was proved so correct on 9/11.
The primary reasons for the immense support given by Pakistan to the Taleban has been explained by Nojumi. He says that the first goal was to pacify the threat that could rise from a strong Afghan government.
In this context, such a government might pursue the cause of independent Pashtunistan or form an alliance with India and cut off Pakistan from links with the Central Asian Republics (CARs), a crucial energy source and a prosperous regional market economy. Pakistan was infact in need of an ethnic Pashtun ally in Afghanistan which would help Pakistan integrate the Pashtuns on the other side of the border. Another goal of Pakistan was to have free and fast access to the economies of the CARs that would help Pakistan economically and would provide the country a free hand to compete with Iran and India in the regional power game.
To be continued…