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Pakistan is facing galloping Talibanisation: Ahmed Rashid
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Hundreds are leaving the Swat Valley as fighting between army and Taliban militants has intensified
Talibanisation,' the veteran journalist said on Monday in Karachi while speaking on 'Afghanistan and Pakistan: Quest for Peace or Recipe for War'. In his assessment Pakistan is facing a major existential crisis.
Pakistan is facing a major existential crisis.He squarely blamed Gen Musharraf for the threat saying that the former president had allowed the Taliban to resettle in Pakistan from Afghanistan before 2008. 'The Musharraf government wanted to maintain the jihadi nexus as a force against the Indians'.
Debunking certain myths about the Taliban, Ahmed Rashid asserted that they are 'not an extension of an external threat’. He also clarified that the Taliban are not being funded by Russia or India.
Several years of progressive diplomacy with India exacerbated the rise of different Taliban-affiliated factions. 'In 2001, the Afghan Taliban fled to Pakistan. Pakistani Taliban became their hosts and earned much money for their assistance. From 2001 to 2004, the Pakistani Taliban grew in numbers and influence and became radicalized because of their proximity to the Afghan Taliban. They planned and mobilized to establish a Taliban ‘emirate’ in Fata and the expansion of that idea of statehood is what we see happening today', Rashid told his audience according to the Dawn..
He cautioned that the leadership of the Taliban is now in Pakistan and they have stated their intention of overthrowing the government here. 'The Taliban are linking up with groups in Pakistan and the Pakistani Taliban movement is turning into a multiethnic movement'.
'Pakistan faces a more dangerous situation than Afghanistan'. The veteran journalist went on to say, 'Groups cultivated to fight in Kashmir have joined up with the Pakistani Taliban, and include Punjabis with organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul Mujahideen. Now, some 40 groups in Pakistan are loosely affiliated with the Pakistan – the several years of progressive diplomacy with India exacerbated the rise of different Taliban-affiliated factions.
It is for this reason, he warned 'Pakistan faces a more dangerous situation than Afghanistan', where Tajik and Uzbek fighters were not permitted to join the Afghan Taliban movement.
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