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RIGHT
ANGLE
End
of the Durand Line
The ISI
and the Taliban are one coordinated criminal enterprise
By
Swapan Dasgupta
Those
in India who have been overwhelmed by a passion to facilitate talks between
New Delhi and the military junta in Islamabad would be advised to read
Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid's enthralling book Taliban (I.B.
Tauris, 2000) on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. There are two reasons
why this book is a must. First, it successfully exposes India's own criminal
ignorance of developments on the other side of the Durand Line. But more
important, by documenting the extent of Pakistan's involvement in Afghanistan,
it establishes something that India has either been consciously underplaying
or is insufficiently mindful of: that the road to Islamabad begins from
Kandahar-the epicentre of the Taliban movement where India's national
honour was pathetically compromised on December 31, 1999, during the hijack.
 The
point needs to be stressed unambiguously. The Taliban may have begun its
innings as an ISI-sponsored outfit to rid Afghanistan of competing mujahideen
warlords. It may have been sustained by Pakistani arms, funding and zealots
drawn from the madarsas run by the Jamaat-e-Islami within Pakistan. But
today it is the Taliban, in league with its ISI creator, that is an autonomous
power centre in the whole region, including Pakistan. In theory, there
is an international border dividing the two. However, for all practical
purposes the Durand Line has been abolished. Afghanistan and Pakistan
constitute one contiguous and coordinated criminal enterprise based on
drugs, smuggling and fanaticism. Together, the Taliban and ISI give depth
and resilience to the jehad being waged against India, Iran, the Central
Asian republics and the West.
That is
why the recent UN Security Council resolution increasing the quantum of
sanctions against the Taliban, including outlawing the supply of weapons
to that regime, has limited utility. Any international move to tame the
barbarians who rule Kabul and Kandahar cannot be successful unless their
Pakistani lifeline is cut off. But that is easier said than done. Having
nurtured a monster, Pakistan is no longer in a position to discard or
control its monstrous creation. The Talibanisation of Pakistan's elaborate
network of madarsas is complete. Pakistani state patronage has created
an army of some 80,000 jehadi irregulars who have fought in Afghanistan
and who are fishing for causes. Kashmir, Kosovo, Chechnya and the war
against the northern opposition in Afghanistan fit the bill easily. As
does Osama bin Laden's crusade against the US. Together, they make for
a composite mission in which the role of Pakistan is central. It is impossible
to woo Afghanistan back into civilisation without simultaneously cleansing
Pakistan.
It's not
that the US is unaware of this nexus. It persists in singling Afghanistan
out as the baddie in the hope that Pakistan is still not beyond the pale.
That's understandable given Pakistan's nuclear status. However, for India,
the same compulsions don't hold. Both the ISI and the Taliban have an
equal stake in the jehad against India. If one provides the logistical
direction and the funding, the other gives permanent sanctuary and the
ideological inspiration. Under sustained international pressure, Pakistan
may agree to distance itself from jehad but it can't stop terror unless
the Taliban agrees. That's unlikely to happen because Pakistan is no longer
an independent entity. It's an extension of a criminal network based in
Kandahar.
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METRO TODAY
Sagarika
Ghose's The Gin Drinkers is easily the best diaspora novel set in India
and an account of existential dilemmas of Indian PLUs , writes INDIA TODAY
Deputy Editor Swapan Dasgupta in 
