Mohammad Jamil
CHIEF of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed
Bajwa made an unannounced visit to Kabul and
met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday last. He also met Abdullah Abdullah, who leads the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), and would lead the intra-Afghan peace. He also separately met Abdullah Abdullah who heads the High Council for National Reconciliation. This is the first visit to Kabul by a high-ranking Pakistani official since Ghani’s second term in office began. Earlier, US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad had met with COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa, DG ISI Lt. General Faiz Hameed and other senior security personnel in Islamabad to discuss the next steps for advancing the peace process. An official handout, issued by the ISPR, stated that during the meeting matters of mutual interest, overall security situation including Afghan refugees issue and Afghan reconciliation process and Pak-Afghan border management were discussed.
General Bajwa’s visit is reflective of a positive development between the neighbouring countries and good omen for progress in the Afghan peace process. On Monday, Khalilzad also met with a Taliban delegation in Qatar and sources claim that the intra-Afghan talks are expected to take place by the end of this month. On the other hand, spoilers — Indian RAW and its proxies continue their ignominious role to sabotage the peace process. The Islamic State (IS) group attacks have increased, particularly in Kabul, targeting Afghan media, civilians and minority Shi’a. The IS claimed responsibility on 4 June for a bomb attack inside a mosque in the Afghan capital, Kabul, which killed two people, including the prayer leader and wounded eight others. Prayer leader Ayaz Niazi was buried on Thursday on the premises of the same mosque where the attack took place.
Month of May was the most lethal. On 19 May, gunmen had opened fire in two mosques in Afghanistan, killing at least 13 worshippers at Iftar time. The Interior Ministry blamed the attack on the Taliban, but the Taliban denied responsibility and said Afghan security forces were to blame. The United Nations has warned of an alarming spike in violence against civilians in Afghanistan. A shocking attack on a Kabul maternity ward last month had killed 24 people, including newborn babies. The violence, although not claimed by the Taliban, threatens to upend peace process between the group, the US and the Afghan government. Since India is not in favour of the ongoing peace process, Indian involvement in these attacks cannot be ruled out. This goes without saying that India has connections with Afghan intelligence agency NDS and TTP elements that had joined the IS (Daesh).
Resurging, abhorrent violence targeting the common people in Afghanistan must be strongly opposed as it is not acceptable to speak of peace while continuing to kill innocent civilians; a political process cannot succeed until there is an end to the terror engulfing the country. It has to be mentioned that the Taliban has not claimed the responsibility for two recent attacks that killed dozens of people. The question is as to who wants to sabotage the ongoing Afghan peace process? Of course, there are many spoilers, local and foreign especially India, which does not see any role in Afghanistan in the new arrangements. Even Uzbaks, Tajiks and Hazaras that were anti-Taliban, want to see the end of violence in Afghanistan. One has to see if Abdullah Abdullah will be able to reach some agreement with the Taliban in intra-Afghan dialogue to bring peace to the war-torn country.
Pakistan’s spokesperson Ayesha Farooqi said that the Eleventh Report of the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team (MT) assessed that foreign terrorist fighters from India are traveling to Afghanistan to join the ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K). Security Council resolutions require India to prevent the travel of terrorists to Afghanistan to join ISIL-K. She said the report also notes that an Indian national, the leader of AI Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, was killed by international forces last year in Afghanistan as earlier reports of MT also highlighted the growing strength of ISIL in India. Last month, in an interview to Azm, a news website, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, Deputy Head of the Taliban’s Political Office in Qatar and head of the negotiating team with the US, had highlighted the negative role of India in Afghanistan.
Anyhow, the world knows that Pakistan is vigorously facilitating Afghanistan peace process. Pakistan wants earliest initiation of intra-Afghan dialogue and assured Abdullah Abdullah of assistance in peaceful solution. But Ghani government should honour the commitment made by the US about release of 5000 Taliban prisoners. The redeeming feature is that both Afghan Government and the Taliban have released some prisoners, but the pace is rather slow. Pakistan wants to see peaceful, friendly and proxy-free Afghanistan, and President Ashraf Ghani should wean off supporting India, which is a peace spoiler, proxy player and patronizing terrorism in Pakistan via Afghanistan.
Terrorists’ attacks in Kabul through Daesh; attack on a Sikh gurdwara, Hazara gathering and Maternity Ward were meant to hinder peace process in Afghanistan. Ghani should realize that Pak-Afghan interests are common, as both suffered due to terrorism and foreign interference; and that Pakistan is promoter of peace and India is a regional spoiler. The Taliban of Afghanistan has emerged as the major stakeholder and needs to be absorbed in Afghan Government with the arrangement acceptable to all the stakeholders under Intra-Afghan negotiations as the Taliban has expressed its desire to take along all the ethnicities of Afghanistan. Pakistan respects all ethnicities of Afghanistan, be it Pushtun, Uzbek, Hazara or Tajik and does not believe in taking sides. Last but not the least, Pakistan wants early and honourable return of Afghan refugees, as Pakistan accommodated millions of them for more than three decades.
—The writer is a senior journalist based in Lahore.
