India wary as Pak terror groups join Taliban war
NEW DELHI: Thousands of Pakistani terrorists from Lashkar-eTaiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and other groups are currently fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan in a clear violation of the 2020 peace deal signed by the Taliban and the US, according to reports from security agencies.
The assessments come at a time of growing alarm in the international community, including India, at the Taliban’s rapid resurgence in Afghanistan that some intelligence agencies fear is poised to wrest control of key parts of the country from the Afghan government.
A majority of the LeT and
JeM fighters are active in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces in eastern Afghanistan and Helmand and Kandahar provinces in the country’s southeast, according to information gathered by Afghan and Indian security
agencies, people aware of the matter said. All four Afghan provinces share borders with Pakistan – Kunar and Nangarhar with the erstwhile tribal areas and the other two with
Balochistan.
Terrorist fighters from other Pakistan-based groups such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jamaat-ulArhar, Lashkar-e-Islam and al-Badr have also been spotted fighting alongside the Taliban in sizeable numbers, these people said on condition of anonymity.
Pakistani terrorists have also been sighted in Ghazni, Khost, Logar, Paktia and Paktika provinces in south and southeast Afghanistan, the people said, citing the latest reports from security agencies.
In these regions alone, the number of Pakistani fighters from LeT has been estimated at 7,200, the people added.
“LeT men are being hired as advisers, commanders and administrators by the Taliban in several areas,” one of the people cited above said.
“There has also been fresh recruitment of fighters in Pakistan by LeT and JeM for fighting in eastern Afghanistan,” the person added.
Reports suggest that Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the military chief of the Afghan Taliban and son of late Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, is working closely with LeT and JeM commanders.
Security agencies have also learnt of hundreds of Taliban fighters being trained in LeT camps at Hyderabad, a town in Pakistan’s Punjab province located between Faisalabad and Dera Ismail Khan in KhyberPakhtunkhwa province. The training was done with the support of the Pakistani military, the people said.
“The LeT and JeM terrorists are deployed in Afghanistan in groups of about 200, which includes five to eight suicide bombers. There are also reports of Pakistani intelligence officials being embedded with these groups, which is a tactic that was resorted to in the past,” said a second person.
The information gathered by the security agencies is largely in line with the findings in the latest report by the UN Security Council’s analytical support and sanctions monitoring team, which was issued in June and said the Afghan Taliban had shown no signs of cutting ties with al-Qaeda and other foreign terrorist groups.
“A significant part of the leadership of Al-Qaida resides in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region, alongside Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent.
Large numbers of Al-Qaida fighters and other foreign extremist elements aligned with the Taliban are located in various parts of Afghanistan,” the UN report had said.
In mid-2020, the UN sanctions monitoring team had stated in another report that 6,500 Pakistani terrorists were operating in Afghanistan, and JeM and LeT played a key role in bringing foreign fighters into the country.
There have been reports that LeT and JeM, both blamed for high-profile attacks in India, have sent hundreds of fighters to Afghanistan since 2019, following increased pressure on Pakistan from organisations such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Western powers to crack down on terror groups.
A SIGNIFICANT PART OF THE LEADERSHIP OF ALQAIDA RESIDES IN THE AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN BORDER REGION, ALONGSIDE ALQAIDA IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT.