As international donors gather in Geneva on Monday to discuss humanitarian relief for Afghanistan under Taliban rule, neighbours China and Pakistan have already reached out with aid and discussions of future assistance. The economy in the war-torn country is in crisis and a humanitarian crisis is looming, experts say. Yet the United States and other Western nations are reluctant to provide the Taliban with funds until the Islamist militant movement provides assurances that it will…
Posts published in “Paktalibanization”
The Taliban’s Islamic Emirate has ignored appeals for the establishment of an inclusive government. The Taliban leaders insist their new cabinet is “inclusive” and that there is no space for those faces who had been part of the governments over the past 20 years. No one will accept the Taliban’s notion of an inclusive government. The Taliban have restored the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” despite opposition by the United Nations Security Council. Taliban authorities have…
THE participation of individuals linked to the proscribed TLP in the cantonment board elections has again brought up questions about the fallacy of the government decision to ban the ultra-right party. Reports say that the TLP has fielded 84 men in KP, Punjab and Sindh. Although these men are in the run as independent candidates, they don’t try to hide their affiliation with the TLP. Almost all of them are contesting on their party’s election…
President Arif Alvi’s recent statement on the banned terrorist group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and their place in the country has sent a slightly mixed message. While talking about the Afghan Taliban’s assurance that they would not allow Afghan land to be used for terrorism against Pakistan, the President suggested that the Pakistani government could consider giving an amnesty to those members of the TTP who have not remained involved in “criminal activities” and who lay…
While Pakistan appears to some people to be the player holding the key to Afghanistan’s puzzle, the perception speaks of an overly simplistic view. It is no longer 1996 and the Taliban are not as “inexperienced” as they were back then. The proverbial graveyard of the empires seems all set to kick start a fresh push and pull cycle in the Asian region and beyond. Is China the next contender for power in Afghanistan? This…
IF the reaction of the Indian media, particularly the TV channels of the hypernationalist bent, was any indication then the Kabul ‘Serena swagger’ was worth it as it showed that Pakistan was now feeling content its western border was secure and no more a headache. For a decade and a half, Pakistani security officials have believed that the terrorist attacks all over the country and particularly in the erstwhile tribal areas were being orchestrated by…
The fall of Kabul in November 2001 was celebrated by rightwing British newspapers and commentators as something akin to Victorian imperial payback. Northern Alliance forces, backed by US and UK air strikes, swept the Taliban from power two months after al-Qaida’s 11 September terror attacks. Now, 20 years on, Kabul has fallen again, and that silly, jingoistic triumphalism is placed in perspective. The west’s victory was, at best, temporary and at worst, illusory. Despite its…
THE Taliban are puppets of the Americans and the ‘Western crusader’ because they met CIA and US officials! There can’t be a wackier, stupider claim but this one led to the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) sending a young heaven-seeker who blew himself up at Kabul airport on Aug 27, killing up to 170 including 13 American soldiers and, according to one Taliban official (later denied), 28 members of the Taliban militia coordinating the evacuation. Extremists…
Taliban fighters have imposed a withering siege in Afghanistan’s rebellious Panjshir province, denying residents food and carrying out some extrajudicial executions of civilians, a tribal elder who recently fled the province said Friday, adding to a growing list of alleged abuses carried out by the militant group. A Taliban spokesman denied that the movement’s fighters had killed any civilians in Panjshir, a northern region that has been a last redoubt for anti-Taliban fighters. The latest…
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister of Spain Jose Manuel Albares on Friday said his government would closely work with Pakistan on efforts towards peace in Afghanistan and for the region’s future. “We want to work very closely with Pakistan with a promise for the betterment of the region’s future,” the Spanish foreign minister said in a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. The foreign minister of Spain arrived here Friday morning to exchange views…
Pakistan hosts meeting of regional states’ spymasters: by Baqir Sajjad Syed in Dawn, September 12th, 2021
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday hosted a meeting of spymasters of some countries in the region on the situation in Afghanistan, a security source said. There was no official statement on the meeting, but an intelligence source privately confirmed that the session had taken place. The meeting was attended by the intelligence heads from Russia, China, Iran and some Central Asian states. “The hosting of the meeting by Pakistan reflects our sincerity for peace in the…