Pakistan pushing the Afghan Taliban, Haqqanis back to Afghanistan: Aizaz Chaudhry

A File photo shows U.S. soldiers watch two Chinook helicopters fly in to take them back to Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan Nov. 4, 2008. Photo by Spc. Mary L. Gonzalez, CJTF-101 Public Affairs/Wikipedia

Pakistan has said it wants Afghan Taliban and the Haqqanis to return to Afghanistan and is pushing them to join the political mainstream in their country.

Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States told BBC News Urdu that Islamabad shares the goal of Afghan stability with Washington hopes the two countries would be able to work together toward that end.

“Our position is that we want to send them back, we do not want the Taliban and Haqqanis to live with us. We are pushing them to return to Afghanistan, it is their country. They should join the political mainstream. They are not acceptable here,” Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry said in an interview with BBC Correspondent Irum Abbasi.

Chaudhry’s comments come amid a stalemate in relationship between Pakistan and the United States following President Trump’s criticism and suspension of U.S. security assistance for the South Asian country. Washington has alleged that Pakistan has not done enough to fight the Hqqani Network militants and that their militants operate from the Pakistani soil to foment Afghan insurgency. Islamabad has denied the charge.

During the interview, Chaudhry said Pakistan’s military actions  – carried out at enormous cost in terms of sacrifices and expenses – have thrown out the Afghan militants from their former stronghold North Waziristan. He cited two reasons for the possibility of the Afghan Taliban still being able to use Pakistani soil for militancy – the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border which means back and forth movement of people and the presence of a large number of Afghan refugees in the country.

Ambassador Chaudhry pointed out that the young Afghans among refugees are recruited as militants and now, having hosted the Afghan refugees for decades, Pakistan wants to return to their country of origin.  “It (the issue of Afghan refugees) has a security dimension now.”

Questioned as to why the Pakistani position does not find U.S. acceptance, the ambassador said if the U.S. has any intelligence or information about whereabouts of the Afghan militants operating on the Pakistani soil, it should share it with Pakistan for action.

He also drew attention to the anti-Pakistan TTP militants operating from Afghanistan, and said Pakistan would continue to fight its militant enemies.

But, the ambassador also questioned criticism against Pakistan at a time when Kabul has failed to improve the situation within the Afghan territory.

He said while Pakistan has flushed out militants through a series of operations and curbed terrorist activity to a large extent, a massive 43 percent of the Afghan territory is beyond Kabul’s control.

“It seems Pakistan is being made a scapegoat.”