Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in Afghanistan

Latifullah Mehsud has been captured in Afghanistan by the US forces. He is considered the second in command and a close aide of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The 2009 Times Square bombing in New York was carried out by the TTP as was testified in a US court by Faisal Shehzad, the lone accused of the attack. Latifullah’s arrest is in line with the strategy the US has adopted to capture or kill al Qaeda-affiliated operatives involved in terrorist activities on 9/11 and later. Hakeemullah Mehsud is a sworn enemy of the US and has vowed to attack it again whenever possible. Latifullah has been arrested by the US military from a convoy of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, en route to taking Latifullah for a dialogue over peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and the Karzai administration. The capture of TTP’s leader from Afghanistan has revealed once again that the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are two sides of the same coin. Otherwise what was a Pakistani Taliban doing in Afghanistan and why was he considered important for a peace dialogue, so much so that his capture has angered Karzai? Living in a state of denial about the Pakistani Taliban having a toehold in Afghanistan’s eastern region in the pursuit of a ‘friendly’ government in Kabul post-2014 is neither in the interests of Afghanistan nor Pakistan. The Haqqani network is operative there, and has sheltered the militants fleeing the Swat operation in 2009. The recent reports of Mullah Fazlullah’s falling out with the Haqqanis have confirmed his group’s presence there. This support of terror by the TTP within Afghanistan raises the suspicion of Pakistan’s complicity. The supply line running through North Waziristan and FATA into Afghanistan is what has caused all the mess and has made the US mission in Afghanistan a failure. These are the people who are attacking the US-led NATO forces. Since they get direct help through Pakistan, which is reluctant to crack down on the sanctuaries operational in North Waziristan, Pakistan cannot escape direct responsibility for these rogue elements. It seems the strategic depth syndrome has not fully died its natural death as yet. We are still obsessed with the fear of India encircling Pakistan through Afghanistan, therefore we want a friendly government in the country, something that we think the Taliban can provide. Isn’t it about time that we shed these unfounded fears, since we have enough of our own emanating from none other than the TTP that is waging a horrific war against the state and its people? The sooner we stop providing support to these enemies in both the countries the better. Our salvation lies in a strategy to have a friendly Afghanistan, not just a friendly government in Kabul.