With the retreat of United States from its commitment to the Afghanistan Government and the subsequent takeover of Kabul by the Taliban, the political and geo-strategic matrix for India has gone astray in the region. The standing policy of India towards Afghanistan posed a serious challenge to secure its vital interests in geo-political context. Amid these concerns in India that Afghan soil under the Taliban regime can be used and other hostile activities against India, the insurgent group has said it has the right to speak out in favor of Muslims anywhere, including in Kashmir. This statement reveals the mindset of Taliban and shocked many in our country.
Even as India expressed concern that Afghanistan territory could be used for anti-India activity under the Taliban regime, the insurgent group had said it had the right to raise its voice for Muslims anywhere including in Kashmir. The Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen from its office in Doha, in an exclusive interview to BBC through video link on Thursday, said: “We will raise our voice and say that Muslims are your own people, your own citizens and they are entitled to equal rights under your law.” He further added that as Muslims, it was the group's right to speak out for Muslims living in Kashmir and any other country. The statement itself has internal contradictions. At one hand he advised the countries like India the secular approach that it should treat its Muslims population as its own people and own citizens, which indeed India does, in the same breath Shaheen stated they had right to speak for Muslims living in other countries including Kashmir proves their extremist Muslim fundamentalist mindset where others have no equal rights and live under Islamic subjugation. Notwithstanding the cause of Muslims in other country, the Taliban has no representative character and not all Muslims even in Afghanistan have given them any right to speak for them. However, the militant group added that it does not have the policy to raise arms against any country.
Recalling the terms of the Doha agreement with the US, he said they had “no policy of conducting armed operations against any country”. Shaheen's remarks came days after the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi said Indian envoy to Qatar Deepak Mittal met Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the head of the Taliban's Political Office in Doha, at the request of the group.
Taliban's remarks are in contrast with the group's earlier statements on Kashmir which had said that Kashmir is a “bilateral and an internal matter.” Surprisingly this statement comes at a time when India announced its first formal diplomatic meeting with the Taliban recently — their first official talks since the group seized power in Afghanistan as the US withdrew its forces from there.
India has to be more cautious while dealing with Afghanistan under the Taliban regime as the past track of the later lacked any credibility and the political legitimacy of ruling the war-ravaged country taken over by force of bullets than the ballot. This is more important in view of the Pakistan and China working together overtime to ensure the government and armed forces chief of their choice to keep under pressure and to its disadvantage though India is all capable of dealing any eventuality or challenge.
