India mum on Taliban, but warns world about its affiliate Haqqani Network

Jaishankar expresses concerns over growing activities of the network after the group’s leader Anas Haqqani represents Taliban in government formation talks

India on Thursday refrained from directly criticising the Taliban during a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) session, but conveyed concerns over heightened activities of its ally, Haqqani Network, which sent hundreds of gun-toting militants from Pakistan to Afghanistan over the past few weeks.

New Delhi also tacitly took a dig at Imran Khan’s government in Islamabad, not only for its double-speak on terrorism, but also for providing sanctuaries to terrorists and extending “state hospitality” to people with “bloods of innocents on their hands”. It called upon the UNSC to avoid taking a “selective, tactical or complacent” view of the threat terrorism poses to international peace and security. China, however, took up the cudgels for its “iron brother” Pakistan and said that it was firmly opposed to “linking terrorism with certain countries”.

With a large number of militants of the Haqqani Network deployed on the streets of Kabul and its leader, Anas Haqqani, representing the Taliban in negotiations for forming the next government in Afghanistan, New Delhi warned the world about the outlawed terrorist organization based in Pakistan. “Events unfolding in Afghanistan have naturally enhanced global concerns about their implications for both regional and international security,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said during a UNSC session on threats terrorism poses to international peace and security. “The heightened activities of the proscribed Haqqani Network justifies this growing anxiety.”

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The Haqqani Network is known for its close links with Pakistan’s military spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which had in the past used the outfit to carry out attacks, not only on India’s diplomatic and consular missions in Afghanistan, but also on its citizens engaged in development projects funded by New Delhi in the conflict-ravaged country.

Jaishankar expressed New Delhi’s concerns over increasing activities of the Haqqani Network, just a day after the outfit’s leader Anas Haqqani represented the Taliban in a meeting with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, for discussion on formation of the next government in Kabul.

President Ashraf Ghani’s government in Kabul collapsed after the Taliban militants entered the city last Sunday, after taking over several provincial capitals across Afghanistan.

Anas Haqqani is the son of the Haqqani Network’s founder Jalaluddin Haqqani and brother of its current leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is also one of the three deputy leaders of the Taliban, with the two others being Mullah Yaqoob, the son of Mullah Omar, and Mullah Baradar.

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The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had in 2014 handed over Anas Haqqani to the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) after arresting him from Bahrain. He had been released in 2019 in exchange for the release of an American and an Australian professor from the captivity of the Taliban. The prisoner exchange had taken place when the US had been trying to restart the stalled negotiation with the Taliban in Doha.

New Delhi over the past few months informally reached out to the Taliban, as it anticipated that the militant organization might take over Afghanistan after withdrawal of troops by the United States and Pakistan might try to use it to get a strategic edge over India in the region.

The Government of India, however, remained averse to any engagement with the Taliban’s ally Haqqani Network, which was responsible for the deadly attacks on the Embassy of India in Kabul on July 7, 2008, and October 8, 2009. The 2008 attack killed four Indians – a diplomat, an Indian Army officer and two Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel – and 54 others. No Indian was killed in the 2009 attack, but 17 Afghans lost lives and 63 were injured. It is also suspected to have a role in the coordinated strikes in Kabul on February 26, 2010, killing nine Indians. The terrorist organisation is based at Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in northern Pakistan and operates in southeastern Afghanistan. The organization and its leaders were sanctioned by Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and the UNSC.

Deposing before the American Senate’s Armed Services Committee in September 2011, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said that the Haqqani Network had acted as “a veritable arm” of the ISI of Pakistan.

“Whether it is in Afghanistan or against India, groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to operate with both impunity and encouragement,” the External Affairs Minister said during the UNSC session. “We must never countenance sanctuaries for terrorists or overlook their raising of resources,” Jaishankar said at the UNSC session. “And when we see state hospitality being extended to those with innocents blood on their hands, we should never lack the courage to call out their double-speak. Let us always remember that what is true of Covid is even more true of terrorism: none of us are safe until all of us are safe.”