Entities considered to be anti-Pakistan, including informers, are being identified and targeted by the Taliban on the ground.
The suspicion and concern among officials and strategic experts that Afghanistan under the Taliban leadership will become a vassal, a backyard for Pakistan’s deep state and GHQ, are coming true.
Former Afghanistan government officials and former and serving Taliban cadre told The Sunday Guardian that those entities that are considered as anti-Pakistan, including informers, are being identified and targeted by the Taliban on the ground, that includes the private militia working for the Haqqani network. The Taliban took over Kabul on 15 August.
The identified targets who were based in and around Kabul, are now either being taken into detentions, shot or are being forced to look for other locations outside Afghanistan. According to a former Taliban commander, who did not want to be identified, the present Taliban militia is executing directions that it was regularly receiving from the Pakistan army. “On the issue of making sure that anti-Pakistan voices and activities don’t get a place to operate in Afghanistan, the present Taliban leadership is acting swiftly,” he told The Sunday Guardian.
It is pertinent to mention that many terror groups, separatist groups, individuals that carry out activities in Pakistan, traditionally function from the Af-Pak border which is a region where the tribal groups held sway and an area where the armies of both Afghanistan and Pakistan have little authority.
One Taliban commander, while speaking to The Sunday Guardian from an undisclosed location, said that the situation in the area around the Af-Pak border is also now becoming “hostile” for those groups and individuals who Pakistan perceives to be inimical to its interest. “Apart from Taliban cadres, cadres of other armed groups who owe allegiance to the GHQ and ISI have become authoritative in the last few days and they are carrying out operations to target anti-Pakistan entities inside Afghanistan. One of our friends from another Tanzim (group) who is on the wanted list of the Pakistan army has recently moved out from Afghanistan as he was told by Taliban members that they will not protect him anymore,” he told The Sunday Guardian.
While these recent developments are likely to be marketed as a “strategic victory” and securing of its interest by Pakistan’s leadership, the Taliban is expected to heed the orders of GHQ until only the time it is able to stand on its feet completely.
“The ties between the various armed groups that operate in the region are very old and strong. Right now, the Taliban is ensuring the directions of Islamabad are followed even if that means killing and punishing other ‘Jehadi’ fighters, but this will not last long as then there is a very strong likelihood of Taliban fighters rising violently against such kind of treatment of their religious brothers,” an official, who tracked the region till very recently, said.