The writer is author of The Prospect of Nuclear Jihad in Pakistan
Last week, Pakistani and Afghan intelligence chiefs held talks in Islamabad in an effort to boost intelligence sharing on terrorist networks operating across the Durand Line. The purpose of this meeting was to persuade the National Directorate of Security’s (NDS’) authorities to help in the arrest of terrorists involved in the Bacha Khan University (BKU) attack. The stance of the NDS is not clear, i.e. what does it want, what are its intentions and can the agency share intelligence with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or not? But one thing is clear: when the Afghan spy agency is helpless to arrest a single terrorist leader or war criminal that channels weapons and funds to terrorist organisations in Afghanistan, how can it arrest the terrorists wanted by Pakistan? Intelligence agencies are the guardians of their states and provide sensitive, protective security for the interests of their own countries but intelligence can only be shared when mutual interests of the states are under threat.
The question is: how can the NDS, whose chief resigned in protest when President Ghani approached Pakistan for a joint fight against the Taliban, share information with the ISI? The answer is deeply complicated as the agency has various political and sectarian groups within its infrastructure that have embroiled it in a crisis of incompetence, corruption and multifaceted loyalties. Internal political rivalries within the agency make things worse as every faction wants the intelligence operation, information gathering, analysis and processes to take place according to their demands. Foreign involvement is another phenomenon, which has badly affected its operational capabilities.
Stakeholders and foreign partners are the real owners; without their consent the NDS is unable to respond to the request of the ISI positively. Just imagine the mindset of the NDS leadership: when President Ashraf Ghani approached Islamabad to resume the reconciliation process, the NDS chief, Mr Nabil, resigned in protest against his diplomatic move. Mr Nabil, who strongly criticised President Ghani, said in his letter of resignation that there had been a lack of agreement on some policy matters between the president’s office and his agency. As the present NDS chief is also bound to hear stakeholders, warlords and foreign partners, he is unable to act independently. The NDS leadership recently raised the question of Pakistan’s involvement in terrorism in Afghanistan. These perceptions of misunderstanding and conflicting signals have further strained the Pakistan-Afghan security relationship.
Given the re-emergence of terrorist networks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA and Waziristan after Operation Zarb-e-Azb, the recent offensive by the Taliban and Islamic State (IS) against the Afghan government, and the establishment of another commando force by the Pakistan army to defeat terrorists, both the NDS and ISI are frustrated as their parameters of intelligence information gathering have shrunk in major portions of Afghanistan, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They have nothing to share or offer each other without grief, anger and compunction on joining the so-called war on terror. In May 2015, the NDS and ISI signed a memorandum of understanding but the NDS chief refused to share intelligence with Pakistan. Members of the Afghan parliament and former president Hamid Karzai hammered Ghani by issuing damaging statements.
However, on January 30, the Pakistani media reported that Latif Mehsud had revealed that RAW (Indian intelligence) and the NDS jointly directed terrorist operations inside Pakistan. On August 8, 2015, a truck full of explosives killed 400 innocent people in Kabul. The NDS accused the ISI while the ISI allegedly arrested more than 90 NDS agents from Peshawar, Gilgit, Karachi and Balochistan. However, Afghan intelligence claimed that the ISI was behind the attacks on the Afghan parliament. The NDS spokesman, Hasib Siddiqi, said that an officer of the ISI had helped the Haqqani terrorist network carry out this suicide attack. On February 1, 2016, Afghan army commander General Murad Ali claimed that Pakistani militants were fighting against the Afghan army in Baghlan province.
On February 7, 2016, Khaama Press reported the arrest of five ISI agents by the NDS military unit in Badakhshan province. Security officials in Badakhshan said the agents include two men and three women who had disguised themselves as health workers in Baharak and Kisham districts. The ISI accused the NDS of cultivating IS and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) inside Afghanistan. Pakistan complains that the Afghan government hosts strong intelligence networks of RAW and Mossad, which causes anxiety, intolerance and anger within the establishment of the ISI. This cold war has caused further conflagration between the two agencies.
Sectarian and political loyalties have divided NDS between different funding parties. The agency reports to various stakeholders (warlords, politicians, sectarian leaders and international masters) on the one hand, while on the other this way of intelligence operations has threatened the national security and territorial integrity of Afghanistan. However, the NDS is unable to provide security to Afghan army commanders in the war zone due to the high number of defections of its agents to the Taliban. Blaming the ISI for everything happening in Kabul is not the solution to the irritation and anger of Afghan politicians; they need to sincerely cooperate with neighbours on the security issue and provide what information they need because the security situation in the country is deteriorating by the day.
Every day, Afghans are killed, kidnapped and abused. Former warlords, members of parliament, Afghan army commanders, sectarian and political leaders have all become part of a shameless race to train, fund and arm the Taliban and IS. Under pressure from the president’s office, on February 6, 2016, the Afghan interior minister submitted his resignation. The president and chief executive were not satisfied with his performance as he had become part of the foreign intelligence war in Afghanistan. In his recent interviews, President Ghani warned that if talks with the Taliban fail his country will not survive in 2016. Political commentators point to too many internal failings like political division, sectarian affiliations, warlordism and corruption. Residents of Kunduz province have again protested against insecurity while the prolonged conflict in Baghlan has forced thousands of families to flee their homes. The Afghan defence ministry has warned that the Taliban have planted landmines in some districts of Baghlan province, which are slowing down military operations.http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/09-Feb-2016/intelligence-sharing
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