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archive: Look beyond Kargil to Taliban and Bin Laden

Look beyond Kargil to Taliban and Bin Laden

Mahendra Ved
The Times of India
July 9, 1999


    Title: Look beyond Kargil to Taliban and Bin Laden
    Author: Mahendra Ved
    Publication: The Times of India 
    Date: July 9, 1999 
    
    The announcement of sanctions by the United States on the Taliban
    rulers of Afghanistan points to the seriousness with which the Western
    world is taking the threat of Islamic militancy.  Considering that the
    US does not recognise the Kabul regime, this is an unusual, if urgent,
    measure.
    
    President Clinton acted within two days of his talks with Pakistan
    premier Nawaz Sharif on the Kargil conflict.  The twin developments
    should disabuse Indians of any notion that the US and the G-8 nations
    have acted out of any love for Indians or India's Kashmir viewpoint. 
    They only indicate the growing impatience of the international
    community with the mercenary forces led by the likes of Osama Bin
    Laden and the Taliban.
    
    Mountain Warfare
    
    When Gen V P Malik spoke of the Taliban "danger" in August last year
    in the context of the capture by the Taliban of Mazar-e-Sharief, the
    last 'liberal' stronghold in the not-so-distant Afghanistan, sections
    of Indian intelligentsia felt the Indian Army Chief was taking an
    alarmist view.  Today, Kargil has shown that the Taliban-Bin Laden
    combine is an adversary common to the international community and
    India.  Now that Kargil has rallied the international community around
    India's stand, it is time these phenomena are watched closely and
    acted upon. 
    
    India particularly needs to understand this combine for its own
    security.  For, Bin Laden's men are going to continue to stalk Jammu
    and Kashmir, the Sharif-Clinton statement notwithstanding.  This
    region was their target for jehad long before the Kargil
    developments.  Their ouster by the Indian Army, assuming that that
    operation can be completed, may well be temporary.  A defeated
    Taliban-Bin Laden force is bound to re-group and re-equip itself and
    strike back in the near future.  This has been its record in Mazar. 
    Soundly defeated with over 3,000 killed in May 1997, the Taliban
    struck back 14 months later and succeeded.
    
    A basic difference between the Kargil conflict and the earlier wars
    India fought with Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir lies in the
    adversary's capabilities.  While the past "raiders" were an irregular
    force Pakistan forged with indigenous effort, the Mujahideen, now
    active in Kashmir fought the Soviets in Afghanistan.  They were
    trained and equipped by the West.  Pakistan played the catalyst and
    furthered this role by creating the Taliban, when the Mujahideen would
    not listen to them.  Today, Taliban has an estimated 50,000 strong
    militia, born and bred in the Hindukush terrain, some of the men
    trained in mountain warfare and fully equipped to be Pakistan's
    auxiliary force.
    
    There is a need to understand this combine because even as Bin Laden
    becomes a hate target for the West - a mix of Arafat and Khomeini -
    several governments are quietly doing business with the Taliban.  A
    measure of de facto recognition is being readily extended to Kabul for
    the sake of multi-million dollar business even should that spring from
    the illegal trade of narcotics.
    
    There is equally a need to understand Bin Laden.  He is alleged to
    have links with India and, indeed, his bodyguards were found fighting
    in Kargil.  The West condemns him and he is on the wanted list of
    several Arab governments whom he dubs "non-believers".  He is feared
    by the Central Asian Republics who have no means to fight him.  The
    Uzbeks and Azeris are up-set at finding their nationals, trained by
    Bin Laden, fighting alongside the Taliban.
    
    Pak-Afghan Axis
    
    Even as Kabul blows hot and cold about the activities of its "honoured
    guest", it cannot shrug him off.  He stays put in Taliban-controlled
    territory.  In fact, he has emerged as the acceptable mukhauta (mask)
    of Islamic militancy, considering that he received a million dollars
    from the faithful across the globe in the last three years and that
    many the ologians have issued fatwas sup-porting his actions
    everywhere, including Kashmir.
    
    Kargil must prompt India to re-vamp its Pakistan policy and make it an
    integral part of an Afghanistan Policy of which External Affairs
    Minister Jaswant Singh spoke last year in the Cariappa Memorial
    Lecture.  More so in the context of reports that with the lapse of the
    Durand Line that divides Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bin Laden and
    Taliban supremo Muhammad Omar, with the sup-port of the fundamentalist
    elements in Pakistan, are working for a Pakistan-Afghanistan
    confederation.  Any development of this kind is bound to affect India.
    



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