Recently Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif described Mahmud of Ghazni as a “looter” and a “bandit”. This was quite surprising as Pakistanis and all the Islamic extremists consider Mahmud Ghaznavi along with Muhammad Ghori, two Afghan warlords as their great heroes. In fact, Pakistan has named some of its long-range missiles as “Ghori” and “Ghaznavi”.
Khawaja Asif had a reason to denigrate Ghaznavi as his aim was to provoke the Afghans. The Taliban government in Afghanistan took a strong exception to Khawaja’s statement. Even a large section of Pakistani population and opinion makers criticised Khawaja’s statement for insulting the country's heroes.
Asif may actually not have wanted to make such a provocative remark. But this reflects the deep frustration among the Pakistani establishment over having lost their precious asset, the “Taliban”, who are now completely defiant and hostile towards Pakistan. Pakistan in return has been accusing the Taliban of ingratitude and thanklessness. The proverbial last straw and the breaking point in their relationship was the recent visit of Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to India. That was a “diplomatic slap” on the face of Pakistan and deservingly so.
India’s option could not be so clear and unambiguous. Except for the Kandahar hijack incident in December 2000, when the Taliban government in Afghanistan sided with Lashkar-e-Toiba to force India to release five dreaded terrorists in return for the safe release of the hijacked plane, Talibans have never entered into any direct confrontation with India. Just because they were Pakistan’s allies for a long time, placed them on the opposite side of India.
Yes, the Afghan territory was used to train the Kashmiri militants and mercenaries, but the Taliban did not have any role in that. It was the Pakistan army and the Inter-Services Intelligence, which exploited the Afghan anarchy to run terrorist training camps there.
Also read: India’s pragmatic engagement with Taliban is welcome
Even if the Taliban were involved in training terrorists, that is more than 20 years ago. History has changed a lot since then. What matters is their current status. They have crossed swords with Pakistan, our perennial enemy. “Enemy’s enemy is a natural friend”.
The issue is how far India can trust the Taliban, not just because of their past history, but also because of their worldview. Indian worldview is completely different and opposed to that of the Taliban. India’s opposition has also questioned the government on the issue and even referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s past remarks taunting the Congress for saying, “good Taliban and bad Taliban”.
It is in the highest strategic interest of India to engage with the Taliban, not just because they are in confrontation with Pakistan, but also independent of their Pakistan strategy. India is not a moral policeman of the world and it does not have any moral obligation to put any condition on the Taliban to change their worldview. As long as they are not hostile towards us, rather they sound friendly right now, it is fine to keep on engaging with them.
Their hostility with Pakistan is not going to end anywhere in near future. The Taliban feel a deep and terrible sense of betrayal that goes back to 2001 when Pakistan provided its air and military bases to the Americans to attack Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 9/11-terror attack.
The Taliban were not involved in the 9/11 terror attack. But Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the terror attack, was hiding in the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan that time. The US demanded that Afghanistan handover Laden to it, which the then Taliban chief Mullah Omar refused to do. Omar said Laden was his guest and it goes against the Afghan tradition to handover the guest to the enemy. It eventually led to devastation of Afghanistan.
It was at that time the US gave a clear option to Pakistan, “with us or against us”. The then military dictator General Pervez Musharaf was left with no option but to provide military and air bases to the US to attack Afghanistan. The Americans still could not find Laden there although they completely destroyed and devastated the country and installed its own compliant regime. Laden was later found in Pakistan in 2011 near an army base in Abbottabad where he was killed by the US seals.
The Talibans have this grudge that they were betrayed and let down by Pakistan which allowed the US to use its air and military bases for attacking Afghanistan. This hostility was simmering for a long time. It was widely reflected through various social media handles.
Even during the cricket matches, an Afghanistan-Pakistan cricket match was more fiercely fought and watched than an India-Pakistan tie. In a tragic irony, three Afghan cricketers were killed in a Pakistan bombing recently.
India could not have expected something better than this as it provides the country with crystal clear options. When Muttaqi visited India, he specially went to Deoband, the centre of the Deoband School of Islamic thought and learning, to which the Talibans subscribe. It was a clear and categorical message that the Talibans have religious and ideological links and roots, more in India than in Pakistan. While the Deoband thought teaches religion, the Pakistan thought teaches and preaches violence, bloodshed and hatred only. That is what the Taliban were taught in Pakistani religious seminaries that eventually contributed to violence, bloodshed and anarchy in Afghanistan.
No wonder that the Pakistan government and its military establishment are feeling frustrated that not only have they lost the Taliban, but they have lost them to India.
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