Why Pakistan Supports The Taliban Explained

Looking from outside, it looks like that the relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban is simple and understanding. As you may have heard form the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan saiying “Afghans have broken the shackles of slavery.” which means for them the Taliban got freedom from the USAand has takeover Afghanistan to govern it. Also its very common to know how the Pakistani Military and ISI, had been supporting the Taliban over the years. But as soon as you try to delve a bit deeper, you’d find that the relationships between them is very serious and ill. The 2011, 2014 attack on the airbase of Pakistan and the terrorist attack on the Karachi International Airport respectively, or the terrorist attack on the school in Peshawar, the Taliban came up and told that they were responsible for all of them. If you look at the statistics, about the common Pakistani citizens supporting the Taliban, then 72% of Pakistanis, have an unfavourable opinion of the Taliban. Less than 10% of the Pakistanis support the Taliban, according to the sources. But inspite of all that, the Pakistani Government and Military, why are they openly showing their support for the Taliban?

Let us try to understand this complex relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban. We will here discuss that “Why Pakistan supports Taliban?” and also “Why Taliban’s victory could affect the peoples of Pakistan?” But before that we will delve back in times when their was british rule in India.

Going back in history, in 1893, the Britishers created a Durand Line. To define the border of Afghanistan and British India. Today, this is the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The problem was that this Durand Line goes through the middle of the Pashtun area. When you look at the map of the regions where the Pashtun ethnic group, the areas where they live in Pakistan and Afghanistan. You’d see that the Afghanistan-Pakistan border goes exactly through the middle of this area. After 1947, when India and Pakistan became Independent, Afghanistan said that the Pashtun population living in Pakistan, have a right to self-determination. Who wanted to have their own separate country, named as Pashtunistan (Land of the Pashtuns). But, earlier Britishers and the Pakistan a newly formed country at the time, refused this saying that the Pashtun population is a part of Pakistan. Since then, there is an ongoing border issue between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghanistan said that they do not accept the Durand Line as the border. On 1947, when Pakistan got its membership to the United Nations then Afghanistan was the only country to vote against its membership. The Pashtun area of Pakistan, which is more neglected compared to the other areas of Pakistan is more exploited and people living there can be easily incited. Because of the illegal drug and weapon supplies and also increased crime rates, the people therir were exploited, also this could happen with the Pashtun Nationalism ideology in the minds Pashtun people living there. Later, with all this the Pashtun peoples living in Pakistan started to demand to form a greater Afghanistan around in 1970’s. And also the Pashtun’s of Afghanistam got united with Afghanistan.

In the early 1970s, the president of Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq, adopted a policy of Islamisation to counter this. He constructed thousands of Madrasas in the Pashtun areas, in the hopes that the people living in those areas, will rise above their Pashtun ethnic identities, and identify themselves with Islam and may feel united with the rest of Pakistan. In the late 1990s, the Taliban comes into power in Afghanistan, but as we know that Taliban was quite influenced by the ideology of Pashtun Nationalism, apart from the Islamic ideology. And so still, the Taliban did not accept the Durand Line as the border. But still Pakistan gave shelters to the several Talibans when the USA invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban. This was after the 9/11 attack in 2001. Now you might be thinking that why then did Pakistan support the Taliban for so many years? And why is Pakistan still supporting the Taliban now?

The two main reasons for this could be:

1. To counter the influence of India:In 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, then the Soviet Union was a major ally of India. Pakistan was afraid that India’s influence would remain in Afghanistan. That’s why Pakistan started to support the Talibanis and sytarted with the Mujahideen. A United States Institute of peace report stated that when there was a Taliban-controlled government in Afghanistan, then they had supported in training Pakistani militants who had then conducted operations in Jammu and Kashmir. Later in the 2000s, when a civilian government formed in Afghanistan, the Presidents of Afghanistan then like Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, were all pro-India. Because the Afghan government was pro-India, ISI supported the movement against them, the Taliban.

2. Pashtun Nationalism:On the surface, you’d think that Pakistan doesn’t supports Pahtun Nationalism because the separatist movements whereas, the Taliban does. But looking at it from the perspective of the Taliban. Today, the Taliban is trying its best to gain legitimacy from the world. How the Taliban is talking about women’s rights, they said “Women will be afforded all the rights whether it is in work or other activities. Because women are a key part of society. And we are guaranteeing all their rights. Within the limits of Islam.” of freedom of media, even of protection of minorities (the Hindu and Sikh minority in Afghanistan). The Taliban is promising to keep them safe and secure. Why is the Taliban doing so? Its because the Taliban wants them to be seen like a legitimate and new government of Afghanistan to the other government of the world and not as a terrorist group instead. And to do this, the more countries that support them, the better it would be for them. Here you may know that China and Russia has now agreed to recognize the Taliban as the new government of the Afghanistan. But even befor them, Pakistan was one such country who had been supportin the Taliban since the biggening. And thus looking this, its clear and understandable that the Taliban wouldn’t want to go against Pakistan. And so now, Pashtun Natianalism ideology would no longer be supported by the Taliban who initially were invloved in the separatist movement. Thus, this could be another reason for Pakistan to support Taliban and suppress them to invlove with the Pashtun’s.

Interestingly, though unfortunate for Pakistan, in this whole situation, the Talibani ideology has influenced the Pashtuns of Pakistan as well, it has incited them. Because of this, a Taliban group has formed in Pakistan, which has become a terrorist group for Pakistan and terrorist attacks were conducted on the people of Pakistan. Now let us understand, why the Taliban’s win is bad news for the people of Pakistan. But before that let us discuss that how Pakistan’s military and ISI helped the Taliban, Earlier, Pakistan gave a haven to the Talibani fighters and leaders. Which were necessary for them when the US invaded Afghanistan in search of the Taliban. The political leadership of the Taliban is based in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan. And that’s why their leadership group is also known as “Quetta Shurra”. The supporters and fighters of the Taliban tooka out a motorcycle rally, when the Talibani forces took conntrol over the border of Spin Boldak district in Quetta. Sheikh Rasheed, a Cabinet Minister in Imran Khan’s Cabinet that several fighters of the Afghan Taliban, get treatments in Pakistan’s hospitals. He said, “The matter is that the Taliban or the other people there have families living here. They’re in Pakistan, in Rawat, Loi Ber, Bara Kahuh, and Tarnol. Apart from this, sometimes their dead bodies arrive there. Even for medical treatment, there are several hospitals where they get treated.” Apart from giving safe havens, Pakistan is a base of the Taliban for recruitment and fundraising. Two months ago, near Quetta, the Talibani fighters were asking for donations around a market saying that they are fighting on Allah’s path. The same happened in several mosques in north-western Pakistan. And finally, ISI gives military support to the Taliban. Multiple times Taliban has provided “Tactical, Operational, and Strategic Intelligence” to the Taliban. A stable Afghanistan under the leadership of the Taliban is indeed in favor of the military of Pakistan. But there is no guarantee that the Pakistani citizens would benefit from it.

1. The first reason is that because of the Taliban’s takeover, the threat of terrorism in Pakistan may increase. Terrorist groups that have been targeting Pakistan’s surveillance and security establishments for a long time, will now see the victory of the Taliban as proof that political violence does work. And that they can carry out similar attacks to achieve their goals. This can inspire Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the TTP. TTP was a new faction of the Taliban formed in Pakistan when several militant groups in the tribal areas of Pakistan came together. TTP has mostly Pashtun terrorists. They want to avenge the military oppression in their areas by the Pakistan military. That’s why in 2014 they conducted a horrific terrorist attack on an armed school in Peshawar. After that terrorist attack, Pakistan’s military had neutralized the TTP to a great extent. But according to the latest reports, TTP is gaining the upper hand now. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) strength had increased as per the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Teams UN report. February 2021. And this probably is because several splinter groups have now reunified, increasing the threat of terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This report had shown that five different organizations are now supporting the TTP. These are Usman Saifullah, Shehryar Mehsud Group, Amjad Farooqi Group, Hizb-ul-Ahrar and Jamaat-ul- Ahrar. Now, the biggest challenge for Pakistan’s military is to differentiate between ‘Good terrorists’ and ‘Bad terrorists’ as per the Army Chief of Pakistan. To him, Good terrorists are those who help them to fight against India,in Kashmir. And the terrorist groups that attack Pakistan are Bad terrorists. But after the attcak of terrorists on Peshawar’s school, they understood its not easy for them to differentiate among Good or Bad terrorists.

2. The second threat to Pakistan is because of the Taliban’s victory, the Islamist political parties in Pakistan will get motivated. One such party is the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). Its founder was an extremist cleric, Khadim Hussain Rizvi. You’d recall that in April 2021, the whole Muslim world was protesting the French government, when their government had defended the freedom of expression, and said that showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, was not wrong. Protest against France was seen as well. and who was leading these protests? TLP!! TLP is a right-wing extremist political party in Pakistan whose main appeal is that they want to protect the Blasphemy Laws of Pakistan.

What are Blasphemy Laws? Well, Blasphemy Laws are the laws that state that if you insult Islam, then you can be given a death sentence. The supporters of TLP had protested when the Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned the death sentence of Asia Bibi. You might say that there are right-wing parties in many countries. There are such parties in Germany as well. and this incident of protest may be a one-off incident, and this party may not be popular. But it’s not so. In the 2018 General Elections, TLP got around 4% votes, approximately 2.2 million votes. And it was the third-largest party in Punjab. Due to the rise of the Taliban, the ideology of such parties can become even more brutal.

3. The third threat is that because of the Taliban takeover, the love-hate relationship between the US and Pakistan may become more complicated. As we know Pakistan supports the Taliban in several ways. And several US presidents were fed up with this. This support by Pakistan is a major reason because of which President Biden has still not called Imran Khan after the start of his presidency. And now because of the Taliban, the US can pressurize Pakistan even more to stop their support.

4. The fourth and last threat is that because of the Taliban the economic problems of Pakistan may increase. Pakistan wants to diversify its economic trade by forging a strong bond with the Central Asia Countries. And because of an unstable Afghanistan, it wouldn’t be easy to build such connections. Along with this, because of instability, if there is violence on Pakistan’s border, how will Pakistan convince China that the investment for China’s Belt and Road Initiative is safe in Pakistan?

This was the Geopolitical situation between Pakistan and the Taliban. Although the Taliban’s victory was maybe good for the Pakistani military and ISI, for the common citizens of Pakistan, this may not be good news.

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