Taliban rise a concern for India: EX-CIA han

India has much to worry about over the rise of the Taliban, an organisation backed by Pakistan that has shown no signs of cutting ties with terror groups such as al-qaeda, Lashkare-taiba (LET) and Jaish-e-mohammed (JEM), according to a former CIA official who oversaw operations in Afghanistan.

Douglas London, who was CIA’S counterterrorism chief for South and Southwest Asia during 2016-18, said in an interview that he had seen no evidence of a “kinder, gentler Taliban” and that Pakistan’s support of “jihadi groups has unleashed forces that could eventually go beyond their control and threaten the rule even of the generals” in Rawalpindi.

“I think India has good reason to worry. Pakistan’s policies of supporting various jihadist groups

2019 after 34 years as CIA senior operations officer and chief of station.

“Now you have the Taliban in charge of Afghanistan, and I don’t see them cutting their ties with any of these groups, with the Kashmiri liberation groups that fought with them over the course of the war, the LET and the JEM,” he said.

London’s remarks come against the backdrop of growing criticism within the US and abroad of President Joe Biden’s handling of the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. His observations are also significant as he was responsible for assessments on Afghanistan prepared for former president Donald Trump, and consulted as a volunteer with Biden’s counterterrorism working group during the campaign for the last US election.

The regional security calculus, London indicated, became more lics,” he said.

London, who has written the book “The Recruiter” about the CIA’S post-9/11 transformation, described a US state department spokesperson’s recent characterisation of the Taliban and Haqqani Network as separate entities as “unfortunate”.

“Officially, we identify the Haqqani Taliban Network – that’s actually its official name in the US intelligence community – as being part of the Taliban. The Haqqanis are, by themselves, a vast and longstanding criminal network, but they... pledged allegiance to the Taliban and fought under the Taliban and really provided the teeth to the Taliban strategy, which was to destabilise the Afghan government...,” he said.

He also pointed to the deep ties between the Haqqani Network and Pakistan’s military establishment, but said he didn’t believe the network was created by the Interin

“They [the ISI] certainly vided great support to the H qanis, but it was a co-depen relationship. The Haqqanis p ited from the ISI and the ISI p ited from the Haqqanis.”

London said he saw imag ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Ham arriving in Kabul on Saturda meetings with the Taliban: “T are all people he’s met befo mean he was meeting the Pakistan, though obviously can’t acknowledge that...”

London also criticised the of former secretary of state M Pompeo and Zalmay Khalil the US special representative Afghanistan reconciliation negotiations with the Taliban lead to the peace deal signe Doha, Qatar, in February 2 The deal, he said, was the “w agreement I’ve ever seen the negotiate”.

London suggested the time come for regional players suc

They obviously see your country (India) as an existential threat and any issue or challenge to them is viewed through that prism.