Taliban on a charm offensive to mislead India

NEW DELHI: The Taliban is on a charm offensive seeking to convince India that they have no intention of getting involved in Kashmir. Of course it is another matter that while they claim an absence of ill-will towards India, several groups hostile to India find shelter in areas under Taliban control. Some even train there. However, a senior leader said that the Taliban had no intention to send their men into Kashmir while dismissing Pakistan’s claims that Kashmir was a factor in the peace talks between the United States and the Taliban.

Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, on the question posed by this newspaper, on whether, or not, Kashmir was on their radar as some strategic experts have been pointing out, said that there was no truth behind reports that the Taliban were planning to move towards Kashmir once US forces left Afghanistan.

“This is not true. We have so many problems in our country, our hope is to liberate our country and establish an Islamic system here, which will bring all Afghans together. Once the peace talks conclude, our only aim is to end misery and rebuild a destroyed country. We do not have any intention to move out to anywhere else,” he said.

Zabihullah said that American President Donald Trump was to be blamed for ending the peace talks abruptly. “We did not stop talking, it was US President Trump who stopped. Talks are very important to resolve the Afghan case, but Trump did not want this important process to be completed. All of our people had come together to participate in this talk”.

The American President decided to end the talks that started in Doha last October, on 5 September this year after a Taliban car bombing in Kabul killed an American soldier, a Romanian service member and 10 civilians in a busy diplomatic area near the US embassy in Kabul.

On the question why the Taliban carried out attacks even when the talks were underway, the spokesperson claimed that during more than 10 months of talks, the US forces continued to attack the Taliban. “US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that they killed 1,000 Afghans in ten days during the talks. If the Americans can kill 1,000 Afghans even as the talks are going on, why can’t we kill the Americans?”

He said it was difficult to give a deadline as to when the talks will resume: “I cannot say, but we have only two ways to solve the Afghan case, the first is struggle and second is talks and negotiation. If nobody wants to talk to us on a regular basis, then we have the first option. We will continue to fight until the invading forces are forced to withdraw from Afghanistan. We do not have any new terms or conditions, but only that once the talks resume, these should not end abruptly and should be finalised.”

The spokesperson also said that the peace talks were in no way related to the issue of Kashmir, something that Pakistan has sought to give an impression of while stating that if the US leaves Afghanistan, it will be forced to send more troops to the Afghan border to control the Taliban.

“We do not want to threaten anyone outside our country, no country should fear us. We want to establish good relations. Good relations with us can eliminate all doubts. All countries should try to have good relations with Afghanistan and contribute to its economic growth so that our war-torn country can be rebuilt,” Zabihullah said.