G20 podium
AFTER the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, many regional countries commenced engagement with the ITA and promised investment, trade and diplomatic relations, in the hope that the Taliban will assist in fighting or evicting those terrorist groups inside Afghanistan that harm the interests of these regional countries. In the past one year, many regional countries have been disappointed after realising that the Taliban are unable or not interested in cutting ties with terrorist groups.
Some examples are China’s frustration with the continued ETIM presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s inability to convince the Taliban to cease hosting TTP. Below are the main reasons why the Taliban are unable to cut ties with these terrorist groups, despite the high cost that they incur on the Taliban:
The key reasons
Marital Relations: Over the years many senior members of the Taliban have developed marital relations with the leaders and commanders of foreign terrorist groups that are present in Afghanistan. There are hundreds of cases of marriages between the first generation Al Qaeda Arab fighters and local Afghan and Pakistan women. Today their children are the second generation of Al Qaeda while they are culturally and linguistically inseparable from the local people of Afghanistan. With the deep marital relations between the Taliban and foreign terrorist fighters that now extends to the second generation, it is almost impossible for the Taliban leadership to turn its back on these foreign terrorist groups.
Culture of asylum: The culture of providing asylum is deeply ingrained in the Pashtunwali code of conduct that is followed by the Pashtun tribes of both Afghanistan and Pakistan. As part of the Pashtunwali code to which the Taliban (who hail mostly from Pashtun mullahs) also adheres, they would rather face death than to betray those who seek asylum among them.
Ageing leadership
Importance of afterlife: Most of the senior Taliban leadership is of old age and not in good health. Leaders such as the Prime Minister Hassan Akhund and the Supreme Leader are suffering from various forms of cardiovascular diseases and are unlikely to have many years left in this world. In their belief handing over foreign terrorists (their fellow Muslim brothers in jihad) is a big sin, and if committed they may lose their chance of going to paradise.
Religious legitimacy: An important reason why the leadership of the Taliban cannot afford to hand over or evict transnational terrorist groups is that in the highly religious and fragmented Taliban, whichever faction decides to betray a transnational terrorist group (which the Talib foot soldiers consider as their fellow Mujahids) in favour of a non-Muslim or a ‘secular’ country, that faction will rapidly lose a considerable amount of religious legitimacy. This could lead to the overthrow or weakening of that faction by rival factions.
Fear of a coup: Related with the issue of religious legitimacy above, is the Supreme Leader’s fear of a coup from within the ITA. Historically, Pashtun kings and leaders have constantly been overthrown by fellow Pashtun rivals. Thus, historically Pashtun kings have relied on nonAfghan militias and soldiers to enforce the writ of the King/Leader, as non-Afghan militias are unlikely to challenge the Afghan leader for the leadership position. The Supreme Leader of the Taliban suffers from the same paranoia and thus perceives benefits in surrounding his authority with transnational terrorist groups.
