Pak Suffers Immensely Letting Taliban Loose

Busy with the preparations for the upcoming elections, or the local version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Pak leaders are showcasing eloquent speech techniques and promising the roti (wheat tortillas), kapda (clothes), and makaan (home). Devoid of wheat, earlier a necessity but now a luxury, and homes that were swept away with the monsoon floods of 2022 and were never rebuilt, onlookers gather in bewilderment.

They wonder, does the political class live in a parallel universe where milk and honey flow in rivers? Or are they so far away in imagination that they cannot comprehend the curse of being a commoner in Pakistan?

The Taliban that rose to power in neighboring Afghanistan toppling the American establishment two years ago with the help of Pakistan ISI are now encroaching the Pakistani lands and minds. And there is no stopping them because they are owners of an important currency in today’s times – the leftover American weapons and ammunition.

Taliban are offering US-manufactured automatic assault rifles, handguns, rockets, bombs, shoulder-fired grenade launchers, night-vision goggles, and anything imaginable to start a war. A trade started in the local currency of afghanis, is now replaced with US dollars. The shooting price of these wares reflects the growing business acumen of the Taliban.

Security takes precedence above all the personal needs of people. And today’s Taliban problem is the primary cause of mounting stress among citizens. Before the ‘survival of the fittest’ is the concern of survival at all.

The border towns and villages may be Pakistani by law but have started to speak the tongue of a Talib.

There is a war on education as secular schools are turning into religious seminaries. The Taliban effect on youth has strengthened not just in the border areas but can be experienced across Pakistan, and even the military has given up on them.

A recent example is from March 2023 when a Pak army vehicle was pushed back by Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (JUI) youth and madrasa students in Peshawar who were also blocking the main highways of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Sindh, as a form of resistance. Just as in 1996, JUI was again the first to recognize the theocratic Taliban government in 2021. Today this organization and hundreds of others are indoctrinating young minds by force.

Sectarian violence has also increased multi-fold along the border. In the Parachinar area, the death toll has risen to 11 while 67 are injured within five days over a land dispute last week. The Shia and Sunni clashes created a war-like situation. Both have used heavy weaponry including missiles and rockets.

Residents of Parachinar blame the government for allowing the Afghan terrorists to break into the border fence and move into Pakistan for a safe zone for fighters who could later be launched back into Afghanistan for jihad. Locals say that it was a premeditated move by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the radical anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

In a Shia-dominated region, the Taliban have incited hatred and influenced the Sunni communities. In May 2023 Shia school teachers were massacred and several soldiers were killed by Taliban in the North Waziristan.

And this is news from just Parachinar. Taliban are free-flowing into KPK and solidifying their underground nexus across Pakistan. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has said, “There are alarming reports of rising militancy feeding into local conflicts.”

Once cautious of the Army, today the Taliban forces and its offshoots will not think twice before killing anyone. In July 2023 Major Mian Abdullah was killed in Khyber tribal district while tackling terrorists; in Jamrud TTP claimed responsibility for a clash with the forces; in North Waziristan, a suicide bomber killed three officials; police officer Ajmal Khan was abducted from Tirah Valley, and found dead later, massacred with bullets. All this is carnage caused within this month.

But Pakistani leadership is quietly giving into the brutalities of the Taliban because they too are the prospecting customers of the inherited Taliban arms! Upcoming elections will fetch the Taliban some good deals as militia groups maintained by political parties wield power brandishing the latest weapons.

The Taliban that once used the ubiquitous AK-47 and its knockoffs, today have in their hands M24 sniper rifles, M16A4 rifles with thermal scopes, M4 carbines Trijicon ACOG scopes, and all the eye-candies in their arsenal. Earning through drugs and contraband is still around. Added to them the American weapons have helped in their expansion in FATA, Kurram Agency, and so on.The stockpile and vehicles left behind in Afghanistan add up to 7.12 billion US dollars at least, and there is no record of the ammunition that was lost, sent for repair, stolen, and in and out of service. Therefore the true value of the Taliban’s might is dangerously unknown. A matter that demands proactive combat is taken lightly by Pak leaders. How many innocents will have to die before they quit playing pretend and, for once, fix the mess they have created?