Pakistan's Last Gambit? Continues.....

Considering that the Taliban in the past had been a difficult customer for Pakistan, it is not lost on the military leadership that a dominant Taliban in Kabul could be detrimental to their long term interests. A recent article (December 2013) on the Taliban’s official website indicated the group’s possible view of Pakistan; it called up on Afghanistan’s neighbours “to allow the Afghan nation to achieve their political aspirations and enable Afghanistan to become a stable and independent state.”

What further limits the military action is the massive displacement such an offensive triggers and a possible ethnic  allout since the displaced in this case are the Pashtuns. This is bound to exacerbate the already strong feeling among the Pashtuns in Pakistan about being targets of the security forces. In Karachi, with the world’s largest congregation of Pashtuns, signs of this fissure are evident. The displaced Pashtuns also become easy targets of jihadi groups like LeT which, in the past, had recruited cadres for the Taliban, albeit with the complicity of the army.

Way back in 1977, analysing the impact of the Afghan Jihad on Pakistan, the English monthly, Herald, had warned that the Taliban’s reversals in Afghanistan would ‘Pakhtunise’ hundreds and thousands of students, who were persuaded, trained and armed to fight for the Taliban. The report, quoting political leaders from the erstwhile North West Frontier Province, warned that, “once these boys returned home, it could mean resurgence of Pakhtun nationalism in the Frontier province and Balochistan.”

The report cited a conversation with an “important Taliban official” in Mohmand Agency who said “first the Afghans were fighting the Russians, but soon they would have to fight the Punjabis.

To be continued..