Indeed though Pakistan and China, by not attending the Afghanistan conference then on Wednesday are trying to portray India asanti-Taliban, the factual purpose is to stabilise strife- torn Kabul so that rising Islamic radicalisation doesn’t change into global jihad and hang the region and beyond. The Afghanistan conference is hosted by Indian National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) headed by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
Pakistan National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf has intimately called India a spoiler in Afghanistan and decided against attending the conference. There’s no word from China, which has backed Pakistan’s overt and covert part in Afghanistan, on attending the conference. The conference is being attended by Russia with Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary, Security Council of Russia, and right- hand man of President Putin, leading the delegation along with representatives from Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
According to officers handling the conference, its purpose isn’t to revitalize any opposition to the Taliban governance but to stabilise Afghanistan with so- called Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) wreaking violence against Shias and othernon-Sunni nonages in the country and Al Qaeda showing signs of reanimation. The biggest fear posed by unstable Afghanistan under the influence of Pakistani deep state is that the failure prone lawless country may descend into total chaos and turn into a mecca of global jihad. While Russia is upset about the security trouble to Central Asian Democracy, Iran is concerned about rising Pakistani hindrance and persecution of Shias on both sides of the Durand Line. New Delhi is disturbed about the rising radicalisation in the Indiansub-continent.
Nearly three months after prisoner of Kabul by the Taliban, no country has recognised the Sunni Pashtun force whose brand arm is Pakistani ISI backed Haqqani network (HQN). There’s hardly any governance in Kabul with Mullah Yaqoob body at odds with Sirajuddin Haqqani, who heads the HQN, and all the commitments promised by the Taliban as part of Doha deal have been thrown into Kabul River. The nonages especially women are under vicious attack by theultra-conservative revolutionaries roving around the country with state-of-the- art US artillery.
The situation is so dire in Afghanistan that indeed Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa is upset about the jihadist testament spillover from across the Durand Line and hang Islamabad itself. It’s relatively apparent that the Pakistan Army has difference of views with the mercenary leadership under Prime Minister Imran Khan, who feels that the jihadist forces in Afghanistan will serve the political purpose of Islamabad against India and buy important needed profitable influence from the west. The hassle between two power centers in Pakistan may manifest either before the appointment of new DG ISI Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum on November 20 or in the coming three months.
Pakistan’s star backer China is engaging the Taliban governance directly and through Islamabad so that terrorist groups in Afghanistan don’t league with Uighur terrorist groups to hang Xi Jinping governance in skirting Xinjiang fiefdom through Wakhan corridor. The other reason for supporting the Taliban is to promote the Belt Road Initiative in Afghanistan and more importantly insure that CPEC systems aren’t targeted by combined Sunni Deobandi groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban, Pakistan. In this environment, China is guided by the Pakistani line on Afghanistan given the influence ISI exerts on a section of the Taliban governance in Kabul.
India may be upset with the ISI influence on Kabul but itsover-riding concern is stability of Afghanistan indeed with Taliban heading the government. An unstable Kabul won’t only spell disaster for the Indiansub-continent but also the world at large as the Af-Pak region will yet again produce terrorists on an artificial scale.
