Taliban's offer to protect TAPI

Within 24 hours of inauguration of the railway link connecting Afghanistan to Europe through Turkmenistan the Afghan Taliban spokesman was on line to offer protection of all infrastructural projects in his country. "The Islamic Emirate directs all its Mujahideen to help in the security of all national projects that are in higher interest of Islam and the country," he said in a statement issued in Kabul. Among the projects he identified include the $10 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline and multi-billion Mes Aynek Afghan-Chinese copper mine venture in the Logar province. Of course the Taliban pledge does surprise many, though it should not because the Taliban office in Qatar was in contact with the Turkmenistan and had offered its blessings for the railway project. Having scored considerable battlefield victories in the recent months - of 407 Afghan districts the government is in control of 258, insurgents control 33 and 116 districts are contested - the Afghan Taliban are keen on presenting themselves as a moderate version of regional militant groups unlike the terrorist Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and blood-thirsty Daesh. The move is believed to be also a gesture to foreign investors that Afghanistan is now a safe bet for joint ventures. Obviously, its pledge to protect all major infrastructural projects tends to present it as inescapable stakeholder in the affairs of Afghanistan. And possibly it is also a move prompted by realization on the part of the Afghan Taliban that victories in the battlefield are not enough, they should also win the battle of mind and heart in the country where nearly 50 percent live in dire poverty. As expected, the government in Kabul has rejected the Taliban commitment as disingenuous. How come the Taliban claim to be custodians of all major infrastructural projects when they had destroyed schools, health clinics, bridges and disrupted power supply to Kabul for whole month, says the spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani. "How could we trust them now? They have to prove their promises in action."
Perhaps, both the Afghan Taliban and the government in Kabul are right in taking the positions they took. In their struggle to recapture power the Afghan Taliban not only spilled a lot of innocent blood they also extensively damaged the country's infrastructure. And it's also a bitter fact that the rulers in Kabul have patently failed to justify their rule. If Taliban are guilty of undermining the national security the government in Kabul is accused of being sunk in the sea of corruption - as if both are yet to be swept by the winds of change buffeting the entire region. But no more - thanks to China's initiative of 'One Belt, One Road' and fast revival of inherent dynamism of energy-rich Central Asian states, the entire region is in ferment for a socio-political and economic transformation. While the Afghan Taliban may be anxious to catch up with it the government in Kabul may take some time. Not only would the change of mind on the part of the Afghan Taliban help their country become politically stable, it would also help attract foreign investment and become a secure and viable link between Central Asia and South Asia. And certainly one clear beneficiary of the development is going to be the TAPI gas pipeline - a project mentioned by name for protection by the Afghan Taliban.