Taliban fight against Pakistan – 15,000 Taliban fighters march against Pakistan. Why are the Taliban fighting back?

“It’s like that old story. You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them to only bite your neighbors. “At some point these snakes will turn on whoever has them in their backyard,” Hillary Clinton said of Pakistan in 2011. The comment from Clinton, the US secretary of state, resonates as the Taliban, fed by Pakistan, prepare to bite back the hand that fed them. Around 15,000 Taliban fighters are reportedly marching towards the Pakistani border.

The escalation follows Pakistani air strikes in Afghanistan triggered a strong reaction from the Afghan Taliban regime, which condemned the attacks and announced retaliation.

This situation forces us to examine how the Taliban, whose return to power in Afghanistan was hailed as a “blessing” by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, have turned against them. Why have the Taliban, supported by Pakistan for years, now turned into a Frankenstein monster?

Pakistan now faces a double challenge from the Taliban. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which operates against Islamabad from areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and the Taliban ruling Afghanistan.

Pakistani warplanes hit Afghanistan, Taliban vow retaliation

The current escalation began with Pakistani airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, particularly in Paktika province. According to Taliban officials, these airstrikes, which targeted the destruction of a training facility and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), resulted in the deaths of 46 people, mostly women and children.

A Pakistani official said the strikes targeted “terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan, using a mix of jets and drones.”

A Taliban spokesman in Kabul said the Defense Ministry had promised retaliation for the attack, which it called “barbaric” and a “clear aggression.” The Afghan Foreign Ministry in Kabul also summoned the Pakistani envoy and lodged strong protests against the attacks.

For this reason, around 15,000 Taliban fighters are reportedly marching from Kabul, Kandahar and Herat towards the Mir Ali border in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Taliban ruling Afghanistan and the TTP, which Pakistan calls a threat, are separate but allied groups.

Terrorist attacks occur in Pakistan: dealing with two Taliban groups

Following the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, there has been a rise in terrorist attacks in Pakistan as the new regime has encouraged and strengthened the TTP. The TTP seeks to establish an Islamic emirate in Pakistan, just as its brother organization did in Kabul.

A report by the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies found a 56% increase in deaths from terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2023 compared to 2022, killing over 1,500 people, including 500 security personnel.

Relations between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani government became further strained after Islamabad accused the Kabul regime of cross-border terrorism. Islamabad has imposed trade restrictions, Around 5,000,000 undocumented Afghan migrants were expelledand introduce stricter visa requirements. Military actions against the TTP also continued.

Pakistan, which had hoped Kaul would take care of the TTP, has become hostile towards the Taliban regime in Afghanistan following a lack of response.

Just a few days later there was a Pakistani military strike on Afghan territory The TTP attacked a checkpoint in the northwest of the country16 Pakistani soldiers were killed.

The deterioration of Pakistan-Afghanistan relations is therefore a result of Pakistan’s long-standing policy of supporting terrorist groups in the region, a policy and result that is in some ways confirmed by Hillary Clinton’s serpentine remark.

HOW PAKISTAN HELPED THE TALIBANS BECOME

The deteriorating relationship between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban has its roots in the ever-changing geopolitical equation of what foreign experts call the Af-Pak region.

Since its founding in the mid-1990s, the Taliban, which was used to destabilize the Soviet-backed regime, has received significant support and backing from Pakistan. The notorious Pakistani intelligence service ISI played a crucial role in the formation and maintenance of the Taliban for decades.

In 1996, Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as a legitimate government.

According to several experts, Pakistan provided the Taliban with military advisers, experts and even combat troops, including members of the Special Services Group commandos. However, Islamabad has repeatedly denied the claims.

This support continued despite international pressure and UN Security Council resolutions calling for an end to aid due to the Taliban’s hosting of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

In pursuit of “strategic depth,” Pakistan allowed radical militants, many of whom later joined forces with the Taliban and other terror groups, to grow along its northwestern borders for decades.

PAKISTAN USED TALIBAN TO EXPORT TERROR TO INDIA

Pakistan has also been accused of using the Taliban as a strategic tool against India to secretly resolve the Kashmir issue.

Groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operated with tacit support and received training in Taliban-controlled areas in the 1990s and 2000s.

However, this proxy misadventure by Pakistan appears to have backfired. This has given rise to what experts call “Pakistan’s dual-Taliban problem,” underpinned by the rise of the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, and the Afghan Taliban’s rise to power in Kabul.

Despite diplomatic efforts and patience, Pakistan believes that the Afghan Taliban have not done enough to combat terror activities across the border.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), although a different terrorist group than the one in Kabul, is known to have a tacit understanding with the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan claims that the Kabul Taliban are unwilling to move along the porous Afghanistan-Pakistan border, complicating the situation.

Pakistan’s long game of playing both sides with the Taliban has proven bitter, proving that Hilary’s remark is valid. What Pakistan once nurtured as a strategic asset is now a volatile force that threatens its own stability.