Hameed Mission to Kabul: Shackle Taliban

Rarely sleuths and sleuth chiefs allow themselves to be photographed, much less have their photos splashed on the front pages of newspapers around the globe. But then Faiz Hameed is no ordinary intelligence chief. He is the eyes and ears of Pakistan Army; his Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a creation of the British after Pakistan was carved out of British India in 1947, has been front loading jihad through a host of terrorist groups to secure his country’s strategic interests. And the mission that made him air dash to Kabul was no ordinary either.  No surprise brazenly with TV cameras in tow, he landed in the midst of Taliban’s equally brazen game to sidelineSirajuddin andhis HaqqaniNetwork (HB) in the Afghan power structure.

The emerging stalemate tilts the scales in favour of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. It suits the Americans who had stuck a deal with him in the run upto their hurried exit in end-August.Also,to Sher Mohammed Stanekzai, who, as the Taliban’s pointsman at Qatar, is privy to the deal.

It is these unacknowledged tie-ups that had enabled the CIA Director William J. Burns quietly land in Kabulon Aug 23 night and quickly enlist Baradar’s help to facilitate the departure of American troops despite utter chaos in Kabul.

An oft heard Afghan saying is that ‘a lot remains hidden below the surface and so don’t go by what is visible outwardly’. Going by this adage, President Joe Biden deliberately vacated Afghanistan ‘to entice China’ into the land of Islamist jihadi warriors so as ‘to reduce pressure on Taiwan’. That is beside the point.

The stage for Hameed’s micro-management of Kabul affairs was set in Qatar. Stanekzai turned deaf to the hotline instructions conveyed by local Pakistan envoy. The open clash between Baradar supporters and the Haqqanis provided the opening he was lookingfor. Baradar sustained injuries at the hands of Sirajuddin followers, according to Afghan sources. He is reportedly admitted toa military hospital in Pakistan, which had held him in jail during Taliban’s jihad against Kabul.

Inclusive government in Afghanistan is the new mantra of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. In essence, it is no more than a call for an Islamabad friendly regime with key slots to their protégé – Sirajuddin Haqqani, who, with his broad-based Haqqani Network has already established his suzerainty over much of Kabul. 

This is the unfinished agenda of the Pakistan Army to gain unfettered access to Afghan airspace, roads and key installations for the long desired strategic depth beyond its western border.And as US General Mike Mullen said famously once, the Haqqani Network is the veritable arm of ISI.

The presence of Mullah Baradari inthe Kabul seat and Haibatullah Akhundzada as the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate will defeat the Pakistani game. It will be a re-run of Taliban 1.0 to the dismay of Pak Generals, who had invested much time and energy in throwing out the much-maligned Ghani regime through their proxies.

In a manner of speaking, the US educated economist had brought his own end by not heeding the American call to form a national government with the Taliban. Baradari is no Ghani but he hopes to float as much on American support as with the deals his colleagues have cutting with various militant groups. 

Lt General Hameed does not want a life-line to Baradari. He is counting on the reality that a unitary Taliban has always been illusionary. Right from the day it was created in the Islamist schools (of Pakistan), Taliban has been faction ridden. Over the years, ISI diluted its Afghan core by pushing ethnic Punjabi Taliban into its ranks. It was a hedge op by all means.Hameednow wants to cash in on these ‘I owe You’s.

Will the ISI chief succeed? He may because of the presence in Afghanistan of many    militant groups from the heart land of Pakistani jihad which is Lahore- Bahawalpur region. The ISI writ runs with them.

Some of them, like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Islam, Jamat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), Tanzim-ul-Badr and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are anchored in eastern provinces like Kunar, Nuristan and Nangarhar while the Haqqani Network has carved out its turf in Ghazni, Logar, Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Zabul, Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

LeT had deployed around 7200 fighters in eastern Afghanistan alone. In Kunar province, the group’s military commander, Amer Saqib, had set up six camps under Al Qaida’s banner.

Local media reports in Lahore say that ISI officers accompanied the fighters on ground – five to ten sleuths with each fighting contingent. Around 300 cadres of LeT, JeM, Tanzim-al-Badr and other radical Pakistani groups saw action in Achin, Nazian and Bor Baba districts of Nangarhar province. Some 800 newly recruited jihadis from LeT and Mojahidin-Al-Badr training camps were enrolled inthe Taliban war.

Funnily, all these Pakistani elements like much of Taliban, did not see much action on the battle front. It is because the ISI ensured that the Afghan Army surrendered without a fight through negotiated deals with their local commanders, and jirga leaders. 

Put simply, ISI Chief is close to his Eureka moment on his Mission Afghanistan.

His game will be up only if Washington stymies his stride and designateshim as a terrorist like it did in respect of scores of others from Pakistan. More so as the so called ‘inclusive’ government is no more than an ISI bogey, and Pakistan is not a true barometer in matters inclusive government.

Among the ethnic minorities, who would expect to be included in the new dispensation will be the Hazara Shias, quite apart from Tajiks and Uzbeks. The persecution of Hazara Shias in Pakistan is well documented and so is its treatment of all minorities, including the Ahmedia community, which has been declared non-Muslim decades ago. 

An inclusive government in Afghanistan will have to give fair representation to women as well. Not only is the Taliban opposed to this idea but its views on women’s place in society are as regressive as Prime Minister Imran Khan’s, who has often chided rape victims in his country for the way they dress.  

Now cut back to ISI chief’s visit to Kabul.

It was announced that he would be discussing some ‘important matters’ with the Taliban leadership, like ‘border management’ (whatever that may imply), security in the region and safe evacuation of foreign nationals including those who have to transit through Pakistan.

 These are matters tailor-made not for a sleuth but to a government. The discussion could have awaited the installation of a formal government in Kabul. There is no urgency as such.

Anyhow, ordinary Afghans would not have been amused by Lt Gen Hameed’s visit. Also, by his Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement that with the Taliban takeover, the Afghans have broken the ‘chain of slavery’. Because, they know from experience that Pakistan has been helping the likes of al Qaeda, Taliban and the Haqqani network in ravaging their land locked country.

If they were in shackles till this August, as Khan says, the Afghans would be no better henceforth as Pakistan tries to grip their country with the machinations of the ISI.