Pakistani Political Figure Bhopinder Singh Discusses Afghan Taliban and Baloch Issue: Fabricated Tales Not a Resolution for Pakistan
The dysfunctional Pakistani State needs to wake up and realize that spinning yarns or propagating false narratives won't magically solve its substantial issues. The roots of its relationships with the Taliban in Afghanistan are well-documented and uncontested. In the early '90s, Pakistani Intelligence, namely the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), funded Pashtun students in madrasas (Islamic seminaries) around Quetta, with funding even coming from America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) initially. These students were backed to fight the war in Afghanistan.
As the Cold War ended, the Soviet Union withdrew, and Afghanistan's Najibullah-led Communist regime in Kabul collapsed. America lost interest in the Mujahideen movement, but the Pakistanis persisted in supporting select warlords, such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, to realize their regional dream of "strategic depth" in Afghanistan, hoping for a compliant regime in Kabul.
Religious extremism was legitimized under the guise of protecting Islamic values, and Pakistan opted for radical factions like Mullah Omar, the Quetta Shura, the Haqqani Network, and so on, the most extremist and hardline of the groups. Hillary Clinton's famous warning in 2011, revealed by WikiLeaks, stating that "snakes in the backyard cannot only attack neighbors" went unheeded. Ironically, Pakistan's own creation - the Taliban – retook Afghanistan in 2021.
Now, Pakistan intends to take on the Taliban militarily, attempting to outdo the Taliban in religious devotion and ideology. They've officially labelled the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as "Fitna al-Khawarij," discrediting its ideology to stigmatize its appeal. While it's true that ideological narratives can fuel extremist movements, Pakistan's method of using religion as a tool has led to disastrous consequences. The misuse of religion is a lesson Pakistan learnt too late, having played with fire themselves.
Pakistan's naming game doesn't stop there. They've created a new umbrella term - "Fitnah al Hindustan" – to group groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army and other Baloch insurgency groups. The Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, has frequently used this term to justify deadly attacks in Balochistan.
The difference between "Fitnah al Khawarji" and "Fitnah al Hindustan" is that the former is supposedly an ideological conflict between the "true believers of Islam" (read Pakistan) versus its puritanical and extremist strain (read Taliban), while the latter refers to the "dark" Indian plan based on ethnic nationalism and local alienation. The "truer" version of Islam is being used to delegitimize the Taliban, while the Baloch insurgent groups are being labelled "anti-national."
Creating new labels doesn't absolve Pakistan from its past mistakes or the culpability for countless brutal acts in Balochistan since independence. The Baloch people's disillusionment and the ways Pakistan created the Taliban bind its national narrative, making it impossible to absolve itself from blame. Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies continue to have significant influence over regional dynamics, but blaming attacks on Pakistan as "Indian proxies" or "Fitnah al Hindustan" is just another record on repeat, hoping for a new tune.
Fixing Pakistan's self-inflicted security situation requires more than head-in-the-sand denialism. Introspection, honesty, and course correction - with the Baloch people and the forces that created the Taliban - are necessary steps to quell the winds of extremism blowing through the region.
- The dysfunctional Pakistani State needs to acknowledge that employing labels like "Fitnah al Khawarji" and "Fitnah al Hindustan" as a means of shifting blame for its own actions and past mistakes is not an effective long-term solution for addressing war-and-conflicts and crime-and-justice issues, particularly those related to the Baloch insurgency and the Taliban.
- To make meaningful progress in policy-and-legislation regarding war-and-conflicts, general-news, and crime-and-justice, Pakistan needs to prioritize introspection, truthfulness, and course correction, addressing the root causes of its relationship with extremist groups such as the Taliban and Baloch insurgency groups, rather than relying on political maneuvering and the misuse of religion as a tool.
