Pakistan Supports Islamism in Afghanistan To Undermine Pashtun Separatism at Home, Experts Say

‘The Taliban were trained in madrassas established by Islamabad’

Afghanistan finds itself in a very different position than what was planned for the country during the 2020 US-Taliban Doha talks. As soon as the Americans left Afghanistan, the Taliban took over, and now, almost eight months into their control of the country, the Sunni Islamist movement shows no signs of following through on the promises that it made in the Doha Agreement.

This is one reason the Taliban has had a hard time achieving international recognition as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The movement had the same problem when it took over the country for the first time in 1996.

Back then, neighboring Pakistan was the first to recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.

Zubaida Akbar, an Afghan human rights activist based in Washington, told The Media Line that this time, although Pakistan hasn’t officially recognized the Taliban government, it is lobbying in the international arena for its acceptance.

“Pakistan advocates for the Taliban and their recognition on the global stage. They serve as a spokesperson for the Taliban,” Akbar said.

Karl Kaltenthaler, director of the Center for Intelligence and Security Studies at the University of Akron in Ohio, told The Media Line that now that the Taliban is in power, Pakistan’s influence over it has decreased.

“They [in particular, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency] had a significant influence over the Taliban through the military help that they gave” to the Islamists “to try to achieve victory” in Afghanistan, he explained, adding that this “multifaceted” aid consisted of “training, tactical help, providing sanctuary, logistics and lots of different things.”

Kaltenthaler pointed out that the main assistance the Taliban needs now is to get their government recognized by other countries. “That’s primarily because the Taliban need a lot of economic help,” he said.

The economy has collapsed, and a very large chunk of the Afghan population is facing starvation, he continued.

“The Pakistanis are now basically running a diplomatic game for the Taliban to try to get the Taliban recognized and get them aid,” Kaltenthaler said.

Akbar, and other Afghans who spoke to The Media Line but asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, believe Pakistan is responsible for the failure of the Doha Agreement’s implementation.

“Pakistan hijacked the Doha peace process in favor of the Taliban,” she said.

A former official of the former Afghan government told The Media Line that Pakistan tried to impede implementation of the February 2020 Doha Agreement, also known as the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan.

One pledge was the establishment of an inclusive government, he noted.

“Inside the Taliban, Pakistan encouraged its own affiliated groups to instead advance militarily in Afghanistan. Currently, Pakistan has a large influence on the Taliban through the Haqqani network,” he said.

The Haqqani network is a semi-autonomous offshoot of the Taliban most active in eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan.

Akbar noted that now, under Taliban rule, “Afghans are starving, marginalized ethnic and religious groups are getting killed, women have lost every basic right, and the country is moving backward every day.”

The experts pointed out many factors that might move Pakistan to provide near unconditional support to the Taliban, despite the diplomatic problems that entails, given that some of the organization’s main factions are designated as terroristic by Western countries.

Indeed, the powerful Haqqani network, in addition to being designated as a terrorist organization by many Western countries, has links to al-Qaida.

At the same time, the Haqqani network is the Taliban faction closest to Pakistan.

Kaltenthaler said the major reason Islamabad cares about what happens in Afghanistan is its location on the western flank of Pakistan, and the fear that India will get a strong foothold there.

“If India gets major influence in Afghanistan, then Pakistan really feels very threatened, because you have India on the eastern flank, then you would potentially have Indian influence or even potentially Indian troops in Afghanistan,” he said.

If you’re Islamabad, you want a sympathetic government in Kabul, one that looks at Pakistan as a friend, not as an enemy, Kaltenthaler said.

Akbar cited another important factor, saying Pakistan fear’s losing part of its territory to Pashtun separatists. Since most Taliban members belong to that ethnic group, Pakistan has tried to undermine Pashtun nationalism through a pan-Islamic ideology.

She explained that to this end, in the Afghan Pashtun communities, “Pakistan has established madrassa schools to teach strict extremist Islam, in order to oppress Pashtun nationalism.

“The Taliban were trained in these madrassas. The Taliban’s terrorist attacks inside Afghanistan were planned in Pakistan,” Akbar said.

Estimates vary widely, but Pashtuns make up about 42% of Afghanistan’s population. They are also Pakistan’s second-largest ethnic group, accounting for 15% of the population.

Kaltenthaler agrees. One of the ways that Islamabad hopes to reduce the likelihood that there will ever be a major Pashtun separatist movement is to make sure this kind of pan-Islamic viewpoint dominates nationalism among the Pashtuns.

“This is one of the reasons that they push so hard in Pashtun areas, and particularly in Afghanistan, to not have any kind of momentum toward Pashtun nationalism which could threaten Pakistan’s territorial integrity. So you instead press this Islamism, even if it’s a very hardcore militant Islamism. That suits Pakistani interests,” he said.

An additional factor behind Islamabad’s drive for influence over Afghanistan is the long-held desire to achieve “strategic depth” for Pakistan in the event of war with India.

“What that means is that Pakistan, which is quite a narrow country, and actually quite small compared to India, which is its archenemy, very much fears that if there is a war with India, the Indians can very quickly come through Pakistan, and at least divide it, if not completely overrun it,” explained Kaltenthaler.

With that strategic depth, the Pakistani military could retreat into Afghanistan, rebuild, regroup, and then come back to reconquer Pakistan. “A friendly Afghanistan that connects to strategic depth is a definite asset to Pakistan,” he said.

Akbar urged the Pakistani people to oppose their government’s support for the Taliban.

“Inside Afghanistan, there has always been outrage about Pakistan’s interference and negative role in Afghanistan. But the Pakistani civil society and media do not react to their government’s role in training and supporting a terrorist group,” she said.