Books are now coming out revealing that Mushareff continued to support and protect the Afghan taliban after Tora Bora, including supporting its military operations within Afghanistan---the Pakistanis perceived (rightly) with the Iraq debacle that Bushco had no real interest in turning the situation in Afghanistan around, so why not contimue to support their Taliban creation?
In short, Pakistan betrayed the US and lied to it.
With the election of the new government in Pakistan, things are murkier. There is now a rising Pakistani taliban, bent on increasing its control in Northwest Frontier and the Tribal Areas. They've already kicked out the recently elected NWF governor at least once. And of course the Afghan taliban is operating out of the same areas. These groups are undermining Army control of northwest Pakistan.
So perhaps Pakistani army and ISI support for its Frankenstein monster is finally starting to wane. Who knows.
But it would not be illogical or beyond imagination that in such a situation, suffering through decades of Pakistani support for Kashmiri terrorism which toes down many Indian military units, that India would provide some level of "support" for the new taliban extremists now causing domestic strife and crisis in NW Pakistan.
It seems foolish given the recent terror atttack on India. And like you I haven't read anything along those lines before this. But stranger things have happened....especially in this neck of the woods. It's hard to say such things are demonstrably "false".
Posted by euzoius at February 17, 2009 07:41 AMEuzoius,
The official is making a claim without citing any evidence. There is no claim being made even by the Pakistanis, as far as I know, that the Taliban are being helped by India. Pakistan has always been quick to accuse India of things and this would seem like a most obvious thing to accuse India of doing if it were even remotely plausible.
It is not in India's strategic interest to support the Taliban because if they gain more control over the NWFP (not just Swat but beyond), they would be right across the J&K border. This would completely destabilize J&K after years of substantial gains and the first high-turnout J&K state elections in decades. Why would the Indian government want this, especially since they are ideologically completely opposed to what the Taliban represents?
Posted by eriposte at February 17, 2009 07:51 AMIndia, along with Russia and Iran, have been long-time supporters of the anti-Talib Northern Alliance, for obvious geopolitical reasons, and nothing has changed to alter that basic fact. Removal of Indian influence in Afghanistan is an expressed aim of the ISI/Pak military, and it is beyond belief that Indian intelligence would attempt the extremely difficult task of playing both sides, as any collateral fallout would cast into disrepute Indian standing within US government circles, to no party's gain.
Posted by barrisj at February 17, 2009 10:08 AMThe tying down of increasing numbers of your enemy's military units in profitless domestic insurrections and quagmires is a strategic benefit, especially if you have no fear that the Pakistani army would actually lose or leave---or at least army generals (who have had such headaches in Kashmir for decades) could see it as such.
eriposte's point that the Pakistanis have not alleged such Indian involvement is a good one and likely dispositive.
I hope that everyone in the Indian government sees that short term embarrassment of the hated pakistani military doesn't mean any kind of long term gain. And there's no evidence of anything.
We'll see if anything develops from this vague unsupported claim.
And today we have reports of Pak truce overtures with the jihadis in NWFP. That'll root out those Taliban guerillas! Not much good news to report these days---the region moves another step into chaos every week, it seems.
Posted by euzoius at February 17, 2009 11:23 AMeriposte,
Conflating the idiocy that is Pakistan's leadership with that of India, is either ignorance or Disinformation.
These Anti India tirades really reek of ethnic hatred
Posted by S Brennan at February 17, 2009 05:56 PMThe read more about Pakistan and the region surrounding it, please visit
http://real-politique.blogspot.com
There is a concerted FUD campaign against India although I don't see it gaining any traction. The minute you hear a commentator bring up Gujarat Riots, Indian Muslims being persecuted or Kashmir you tend to get a good idea the person has an agenda.