Taliban team in Pakistan for Afghan peace talks

NEWDELHI: Less than a week after taking steps to enforce UN Security Council sanctions against hundreds of terrorists, Pakistan on Monday invited a Taliban delegation led by one of the Un-designated leaders for talks on Afghanistan’s peace process.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and deputy political chief of the group, was among scores of Taliban and Haqqani Network operatives named in a statutory regulatory order issued by Pakistan’s foreign office on August 18 to enforce the UN sanctions, which include a freeze on assets, a travel ban and ensuring they cannot access weapons.

Baradar and the delegation arrived in Islamabad from Doha on Monday, and are expected to hold talks with Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership.

Pakistan’s recent move to enforce the UN sanctions, which also apply to Lashkar-e-taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-mohammed chief Masood Azhar and hundreds of terrorists, was widely perceived as having been taken with an eye on an upcoming assessment of the country’s counterterror financing regime by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The assessment is expected in October.

People familiar with developments said the invitation to the sanctionedtalibanleaderunderline Pakistan’s reluctance to sincerely take action against terrorist individuals and entities.

“How can one take the notification they issued on August 18 seriously when this is the next step taken by them?” said one of the people cited above.

Baradar, one of the Taliban’s main negotiators, had signed the peace deal with the US in February. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted on Monday that Baradar and his delegation were visiting Islamabad at the “invitation of Pakistan’s foreign ministry”.

Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Monday the talks with the Taliban were aimed at bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan.

Sameer Patil, fellow for international security studies at Gateway House, said Pakistan was more intent on protecting its political interests than cracking down on terror. “FATF began increasing the pressure on Pakistan after several attacks by antiindia terrorist groups based in Pakistan. Since then, Pakistan has taken some steps to show it is acting on FATF’S action plan. But it will keep on protecting its political interests, over and above what it does for FATF,” he said.