‘Pakistan pussyfooting on Taliban’

LONDON - Pakistan’s refusal to crack down on the Afghan Taliban in a bid to achieve “strategic depth” against India will weaken global efforts to negotiate a peace in Afghanistan, a senior British expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said Wednesday.

Pakistan has been fobbing off pressure from the NATO forces in Afghanistan - the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) - to move against the Afghan Taliban, arguing its forces need more money first, said Nigel Inkster, director of Translation Threats and Political Risks at the institute.

“ISAF and NATO have been asking the Pakistani government to put pressure on the Afghan Taliban and the Shura. And Pakistani senior military and security sources are increasingly frank that they are not going to do that, and that they have no intention of doing that,” said Inkster.

Speaking at the launch of the IISS Military Balance report for 2010, he said Pakistani Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani had told western correspondents after a visit to the NATO headquarters about the need for “strategic depth” - Pakistani strategic jargon for establishing military presence in Afghanistan.

The comments of Inkster, a former senior British intelligence officer, follow last week’s global conference on Afghanistan where ministers from some 70 countries agreed to establish a trust fund that would be used to wean away Taliban militants who renounce violence.

Inkster, who was director for operations and intelligence at the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), said the Pakistani refusal to act against the Afghan Taliban held “obvious implications” for the Afghan peace process.

Many suicide bombers who have carried out attacks in Afghanistan have come from Pakistan - trained and prepared by the Pakistani Taliban.

“When Pakistani authorities are challenged on this by NATO counterparts, the answer is always ‘it’s a problem of sequencing’ - or resources. The reality is that Pakistani reluctance to address the problem of Afghan Taliban is a political issue.”

“It’s difficult to see why in the present circumstances the Afghan Taliban should be in too much haste to negotiate. It would seem logical that their interest at this stage is to fight as hard as they can and not to negotiate from a position of weakness,” Inkster added.