Category: General

In a lecture delivered in Karachi on Monday last, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, author of Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Afghanistan, and Central Asia, observed: “I no longer say that there’s a creeping Talibanization in Pakistan; it’s a galloping Talibanization.”

The lecture was published by The Dawn Blog. The following are excerpts: 

The Taliban “Are Not an Extension of an External Threat; They Are Not Being Funded by Russia or India“

“The myths about the Taliban need to be clarified. They are not an extension of an external threat; they are not being funded by Russia or India. In the 1990s, the Taliban in Afghanistan were fighting the Northern Alliance, and thousands of Pashtuns went to fight as foot soldiers on behalf of the Taliban. In 2001, the Afghan Taliban fled to Pakistan. Pakistani Taliban, who previously had little clout, became hosts of the Afghan Taliban and earned much money for their assistance.

“From 2001 to 2004, the Pakistani Taliban grew in numbers and influence and became radicalized because of their proximity to the Afghan Taliban. They planned and mobilized to establish a Taliban ’emirate’ or state in FATA [the Federally Administered Tribal Areas situated along the Afghan border] and the expansion of that idea of statehood is what we see happening today….”

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