India to Foil Afghan Government-Taliban Talks

By Sajjad Shaukat

On the direction of Pakistan’s Chief of Army Stafff General Raheel Sharif, country’s superior intelligence agency, ISI done hard to bring almost all the factions of Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table in order to have talks with the Afghan government. These efforts materialized when representatives from both the sides reached Islamabad.

In this regard, Pakistan Foreign Office said, “To facilitate Afghan peace talks. A meeting hosted by Pakistan between the Afghan High Peace Council (HPC), the body tasked with opening negotiations and Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan representatives in Murree (On July 8, this year)-an Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process-the representatives of China and the USA also participated in the meeting. The participants expressed their collective desire to bring peace to Afghanistan and the region-agreed to continue talks-the next meeting will be held at mutually convenient date after Ramazan”.

India which has been making attempts to foil the dialogue between the Afghan rulers and the Afghan Taliban is creating an impression that some groups like Haqqani outfit did not take part in the new talks. While, the US, China and Pakistan are jointly working to facilitate the process so as to bring peace both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In order to obtain its secret aims, India is destabilizing the regional countries in general and Pakistan in particular. The exploitation is aimed at augmenting Indian hegemony in the region. However, India is sabotaging the peace process between Afghanistan and Pakistan by managing terrorist attacks on sensitive buildings like the recent assault on the Afghan parliament.

In this context, former Chief of Indian secret agency RAW, Amarjit Singh Dulat disclosed on June 4, this year that Indian intelligence agencies have over the years paid money to militants and separatists in the Indian occupied-Kashmir and Pakistan.

However, the statement of RAW chief is not surprising, as recently, Indian Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar and even its Prime Minister Narendra Modi Modi openly confirmed assistance to anti-Pakistan elements including separation of East Pakistan.

It is notable that Indian former Army Chief Gen. VK Singh also confessed that during his tenure, he supervised special army unit, Tactical Support Division (TSD) on the instructions of the then defence minister to sponsor subversive activities in Pakistan, particularly Balochistan.

Undoubtedly, these blatant admissions clearly prove that New Delhi has been sponsoring worse kinds of terrorism inside Pakistan by promoting sub-nationalists. New Delhi has been exploiting these entities locally and abroad as proxies against Pakistan. Therefore, the matter must be taken up with UN Security Council to declare India a terror sponsoring state.

Nevertheless, Indian RAW has well-established its network in Afghanistan, and is fully assisting cross-border incursions and terror-activities in various regions of Pakistan through Baloch separatist elements and anti-Pakistan groups like Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), Jundullah and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) including their affiliated outfits. They also abducted and killed many Chinese and Iranian nationals. On a number of occasions, these insurgent groups claimed responsibility for their acts of sabotage.

RAW is making efforts to weaken Afghanistan, Tibetan regions of China and Pakistan, especially Balochistan by arranging the subversive activities, promoting acrimonious sense of dissent, political volatility, sectarian violence and arousing sentiments of separatism.

It is mentionable that New Delhi which has already invested billion of dollars in Afghanistan, also signed a wide-ranging strategic agreement with that country on October 5, 2011. And, the then President Karzai had also signed another agreement with India to obtain Indian arms and weapons. However, under the cover of these agreements, India has further strengthened its grip in Afghanistan. By taking advantage of lawlessness in Afghanistan, India is up to its usual tirade to foment an environment by conducting terrorist attacks in that country to prove that Pakistan is creating trouble for Afghanistan.

It is noteworthy that Gen. Raheel accompanied by the DG of ISI went to Kabul on December 17, 2014. During his meeting with his Afghan counterpart, President Ashraf Ghani and the ISAF commander, he presented the evidence of linkage between the massacre of children at Peshawar school and TTP sanctuaries in Afghanistan. He also asked about action against the TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah.

In response, Afghan government and US has started taking action against the TTP. A number of TTP militants have been captured in Afghanistan, while Fazlullah survived in a drone attack. Meanwhile, Washington has also designated Mullah Fazullah as a global terrorist and seized his bank accounts.

Unlike the Indian-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Ashraf Ghani realized that Afghanistan and Pakistan are facing similar challenges of terrorism and will combat this threat collectively. On May 18, 2015, the two countries signed the security agreement—Pakistan’s ISI and Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) to share intelligence and conduct coordinated operations against terrorists. And, frequent visits of Pak-Afghan civil and military leaders to each other’s country also irritate New Delhi.

Now, even the US and its western allies who intend to seek stability in Afghanistan realize that after the withdrawal of foreign troops, Afghanistan will be thrown in era of uncertainly and civil war—and terrorism or stability in Pakistan and Afghanistan is interrelated. Hence, US-led developed nations which also pledged billions of dollars for the development of Afghanistan have repeatedly agreed that without Islamabad’s help, stability cannot be achieved in Afghanistan.

So, Indian desperation in Afghanistan is increasing in the backdrop of growing engagements of Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and US.

Besides, New Delhi is trying to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Recent terror-attacks in Pakistan and Balochistan might be noted as example. In this connection, Indian backed Baloch secessionists have been directed to step up their activities on the CPEC project. Indian RAW has created a heavily funded China-Pakistan specific desk to target growing Pak-China-Afghanistan relations.

Nonetheless, it will be hard for New Delhi to digest these new developments, and it will create every sort of hurdles to sabotage the same. India is also pressurizing the British government for not sharing terrorist financing trail with Pakistan, so that its ulterior motives remain hidden.

In fact, India wants instability in Afghanistan, which favours its clandestine aims. But Pakistan seeks stability in Afghanistan, which is essential for both the countries including US, China, Iran and other regional states. In this perspective, facilitation of dialogue between the Afghan rulers and the Taliban is a positive development, but India will try to foil these talks.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com