Twenty-five years ago, I was introduced to the Taliban militia as pipeline police. This introduction was arranged by then Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who was perturbed by my criticism of her government for supporting the Taliban. She asked her Interior Minister Naseerullah Khan Babar to brief me about the Taliban.
Babar was a retired Major General of the Pakistan Army. He admitted to me many times that he provided money and weapons to many famous Afghan rebels like Ahmad Shah Masood, Burhanuddin Rabbani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in 1975 as IG of Frontier Corps on the orders of then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, father of Benazir Bhutto.
Babar told me that he started supporting Afghan rebels in 1975 because the Afghan government led by Sardar Daud was sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan in collaboration with India. He said Pakistanis and Americans were supporting the Taliban because American oil company Unocal was treating the Taliban as pipeline police.
Zalmay Khalilzad, who signed the Doha agreement with Mullah Baradar in 2020, arranged a visit of Taliban leaders to Unocal offices in the US in 1997. Former US Ambassador to Pakistan, Robert Oakley, and Hamid Karzai were also working for Unocal in those days. Naseerullah Babar told me that Unocal provided money to the Taliban in 1995 for setting up a communication system between Kandahar and Quetta. Unocal wanted the Taliban to protect a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan.
My first meeting with the late Mullah Omar was also arranged by Naseerullah Khan Babar. I realised that Mullah Omar was not aware of any great oil game in the region. He was only interested in enforcing Sharia in Afghanistan and said Pakistan must treat us like brothers not like subordinates. Naseerullah Babar used his influence on Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmad Shah Masood and forced them to start talks with the Taliban.
Babar wanted a broad-based government in Kabul representing all ethnic groups. Benazir Bhutto was reluctant to recognise the Taliban government despite US pressure. Her government was interested in giving the contract of the gas pipeline project to Argentinean oil company Bridas. She told me once that American officials forced her to make a deal with Unocal. Her government was trying to push a national unity government in Kabul. Famous Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum also agreed to work with the Taliban, but the government of Benazir Bhutto was suddenly dismissed in November 1996 and behind-the-scenes Afghan peace talks were over. The pipeline project went to Unocal.
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Mullah Abdul Razzaq Akhund died in a Pakistani prison in 2010. His prediction came true after 20 years, on August 15, 2021, when the Taliban re-entered Kabul by driving Humvees and riding tanks hoisting their white flag. Twenty years ago, US President George W Bush used the term 'crusade' for a war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. This term was loaded with historical baggage about religious wars.
The fact was that the word crusade is commonly used in the US and does not have much of a religious context but the use of that word by a US President certainly helped the Taliban. They gave a religious colour to their resistance. When Bush started his crusade twenty years ago, the Taliban were running away from Kabul. Now the Taliban are sitting in the Presidential Palace and the US is running away from Kabul. Who is the loser and who is the winner in this crusade? We must not jump to conclusions because in my view the real test of the Taliban started after August 15.
Taliban of today different?
Many people say that the Taliban of today are different from the Taliban of 2001. I think they are still loyal to their old ideology, but they have learned some new tactics in the last two decades. Their command-and-control system actually revolves around their ideology. It is important to know that the political office of the Taliban working in Qatar for many years was not an independent decision-making authority.
Decision-making powers are confined to "Rahbri Shoora" or grand consultative council and most of its members were part of the resistance inside Afghanistan. The Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, is the ultimate authority on religious, political and military affairs. He makes decisions in consultation with his three deputies.
Will Mullah Haibatullah allow democracy in Afghanistan? This is a very important and big question. What will be the use of the new parliament building in Kabul which was gifted to Afghans by the Indian Government? According to my information, the Taliban are very much flexible on the inclusion of all ethnic minorities, women and even non-Muslims in a new government, but they have strong reservations on "western democracy".
One Taliban leader asked me off the record that if the US, the UK, India and Pakistan can have friendship with a non-democratic state like Saudi Arabia, then why do they want to impose western democracy on Afghanistan? I have dealt with the generation of Mullah Omar, Jalaluddin Haqqani and Maulvi Younis Khalis. It was always easy to deal with them politely. They always refused to accept dictation. Their sons Mullah Yaqoob, Siraj Haqqani and Matiullah Younas are different only in their tactics not in approach. They may listen to the international community if dealt with politely otherwise they are always ready to embrace new wars like their fathers.
Taliban must address concerns of these countries
If the Afghan Taliban wants to avoid international isolation, then they must address the concerns of at least 10 countries, including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, Iran, Chechnya and the US. The Afghan Taliban cultivated Iran and Russia in recent years by claiming that only they can stop the rise of ISIS in Afghanistan. No doubt the Taliban never allowed ISIS to make strongholds in East and North of Afghanistan, but ISIS is not the only problem. Al Qaeda and other militant groups are also a matter of great concern for the international community. The Taliban will not hand over foreign militants to their respective countries like Mullah Omar refused to hand over Osama bin Laden to the US. This is a different situation now.
If the Taliban can address these concerns, then they can acquire international legitimacy. If they will not address these concerns, then they must be ready to face big problems. Afghanistan of today is not the same as Afghanistan of 2001. Many Afghans refused to accept the white flag of the Taliban as the substitute for their old national flag.
They challenged the Taliban without arms and some of them were silenced by bullets. Taliban announced general amnesty, but they raided houses of some journalists in Afghanistan. They stopped some female journalists from working in Kabul. There is a clear contradiction in their spoken words and actions. They are not setting good examples.
The Taliban cannot run Afghanistan like this. They learned to handle diplomats and media in the last two decades. Now they need to learn public diplomacy and the best way to win public trust comes through ballet, not through bullets. I had a long discussion with one Taliban leader on democracy recently.
I told him you can make a difference by proving that you enjoy public support. He smiled and said Muhammad Morsi proved that he enjoyed public support in Egypt, but Americans toppled his government through General Al-Sissi. He said we are not bothered by the views of those who imposed a corrupt leader like Ashraf Ghani on us but yes, we will try our level best to move forward with a general consensus.
Two decades ago and now, has anything changed?
25 years ago, the Taliban was introduced to me as pipeline police. Today it has become a multi-national force seen as a threat to the security of more than 10 countries. Gen sir Nick Carter, the head of the British Army rightly said that let's give the Taliban a chance to prove that they are different.
Are the Taliban really interested in utilizing this chance? I see a very bumpy road for the Taliban in Afghanistan if they fail to make a broad-based national government in Kabul. ...