EDITORIAL: It increasingly seems that the outside world is more worried about some of Afghanistan’s most pressing problems than its own government since the Taliban waltzed back into Kabul three years ago. And even though the regime has shrugged off everything anybody has had to say about soft issues like human rights, etc., it will have to take concerns about harder issues like terrorist networks much more seriously.
For example, the quadrilateral group of countries – Pakistan, Russia, China, Iran – calling on the Taliban to take “visible and verifiable actions” to dismantle terrorist groups operating from Afghanistan will need some answers. Pakistan’s experience has made the costs of allowing some of these groups to fester along the Afghan border clear for the entire region to see, and nobody is going to tolerate any unnecessary turbulence in what are already very fragile times.
Besides, cracking down on outfits like Daesh, al Qaeda, Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), Jaishul Adl, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), all of whom have found safe haven in Afghanistan, is important for that country and its people as well as the survival of the Taliban themselves. Yet, as TTP’s case goes to show, at least, they tolerate and even encourage some of these groups.
They have, however, won some praise – all the way to Washington – for some of their efforts in containing Daesh. Yet some security analysts closer to home only see that as a demarcation of on ground terror groups; marking a difference between those hostile to the Taliban and those aligned with it.
Daesh is in it for a revolution and possible takeover of its own, while TTP, BLA, and the kind are happy to find shelter and regroup. It is still not clear, though, why the Taliban would allow the latter to carry on with business as usual even when they are up to no good in the neighbourhood.
Clearly, they are worth enough from them to let a perfectly good relationship with Pakistan – also its only diplomatic window to the outside world – go sour. Perhaps the Taliban should ponder these groups’ utility as it prepares to answer the quadrilateral group. They must also reflect on their policies as a whole, especially those that are pushing Afghanistan further into isolation and making it a potential flashpoint in the near future.
As lamented so often in this space, the Taliban’s disregard for human, especially women, rights is keeping it deprived of the aid it needs to avoid a social catastrophe; exactly the kind that plays into the hands of destabilising factors like the dozens of terror units that litter the Afghan landscape. So far, they have refused to listen to reason, allowing their country to become poorer, more divided and less safe than it has to be.
The quadrilateral group’s warning may well be Kabul’s last serious chance to sort out some of its issues. Pakistan’s case, once again, shows the limits of diplomacy. A point comes when near-daily insurgent attacks are no longer tolerable, and maximum force becomes the only realistic option. And when all countries that surround you share the same opinion, and that too entirely because of your own policy set, then you have serious problems down the road unless you take appropriate action immediately.
And that is Kabul’s position at the moment. How it responds in the coming weeks and months will show its sincerity to peaceful coexistence in this region. Hopefully, it will understand that what is good for others, in this case, is good for itself also, and begin doing the right thing.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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