Will the Taliban takeover hit J&Ok?
The Taliban named a brand new government on September 7, three weeks after their beautiful takeover of Afghanistan. For India, the Pakistan-based Haqqani community’s distinguished presence within the 33-member cabinet is trigger for concern. The Haqqanis, based mostly in North Waziristan, have deep hyperlinks with Al Qaeda and the Pakistani deep state. They carried out the suicide assault on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan in July 2008. Group chief Sirajuddin Haqqani is the brand new Taliban inside minister.
Worried that Afghanistan might once more change into a base for anti-India terror actions, the nation’s envoy to Qatar, Deepak Mittal, met the top of the Taliban’s political workplace, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, in Doha on August 31. The Taliban consultant gave assurances that India’s issues can be addressed, however apprehensions stay within the backdrop of reports that Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar met Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar days after the autumn of Kabul. The Taliban and JeM are ideological twins. Azhar has a protracted affiliation with Afghanistan as he acquired his jihadi coaching there. Being a fiery orator, he visited a number of nations to unfold the Taliban’s message.“The Taliban can’t get directly involved (in operations against India) as they have to worry about regime stabilisation and global acceptance…but they will help appendage Jaish to some extent,” says an intelligence official working in Kashmir.There stays the prospect of battle-hardened fighters from Afghanistan touring by Pakistan to battle Indian safety forces in J&Ok, as they did after the seize of Kabul in 1992. The inflow of international fighters continued all through the Taliban rule from 1996 and tapered off solely after the 2001 collapse of their emirate.Meanwhile, India has heightened safety alongside the LoC and the borders. There are reviews of a international militants’ build-up in three districts—Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara—in north Kashmir. The safety grid is sustaining a ‘wait and watch’ coverage for now. Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh, although, is assured, saying there may be “nothing to worry and everything is fine”.Six terror teams that would leverage the rise of the Taliban in J&Ok:JeM: Founded by Masood Azhar after his launch in trade for the hostages on the hijacked Indian Airlines flight (IC-814) in December 1999, the outfit has launched many lethal assaults on India since then. The 2019 Pulwama assault is alleged to be their handiwork.Status: ActiveLashkar-e-TAiba: Established in Afghanistan over the past stage of the Soviet-Afghan struggle in 1987 by Hafiz Saeed, it’s accused of finishing up among the fiercest fidayeen assaults in India, together with the 26/11 Mumbai terror assault.Status: ActiveAl Qaeda: There is not any affirmation about its footprint in India however prior to now chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has issued statements on Kashmir, directing militants right here to launch assaults on the “Indian army and government”. On August 31, it congratulated the Taliban and referred to as for liberating Kashmir from “the enemies of Islam”.Status: Active within the Af-Pak areaHizbul Mujahideen: One of the oldest militant outfits in Kashmir, lively for the reason that late Nineteen Eighties. The Pakistan-based group had a number of Afghan veterans in its ranks all through the ’90s.Status: ActiveAl Badr: The outfit has shut ties with Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e-lslami. Now works largely to ship international cadre to Kashmir.Status: ActiveIslamic State: Formed the Wilayat al-Hind (IS province in India) to deal with ‘India-specific’ actions in 2019. Many militants disillusioned with Pakistan have shifted right here. Marginal participant regardless of on-line propaganda.Status: Active
