Daily Times

Some recent, amazing news
stories about the Afghan army’s collaboration with the Taliban, its active involvement in the internal conflicts of neighbouring states and its killing of innocent British soldiers in Afghanistan have created misunderstandings between the Afghan and NATO military establishment. Soldiers and officers associated with the army and jihadi groups are working on different agendas. On the instructions of their respective jihadi masters, they kill foreign forces and play the role of purveyors for the Taliban militia.

Last month, an Afghan army soldier, Talib Hussein, killed three British soldiers he had worked and lived alongside. Talib Hussein killed Major James Bowman in his tent and then fired a rocket propelled grenade into a command centre, killing Lieutenant Neal Turkington and Corporal Arjun Purja Pun. In November 2010, five British soldiers were killed by a rogue Afghan policeman they were training in Nad-e-Ali district.

On July 17, 2011, another British soldier was killed in Afghanistan. Lance Corporal Paul Watkins was fatally wounded during routine patrols with his troops. Moreover, on August 5, 2011, a 14-year-old Afghan teenager, Agha Wali, killed a British soldier in Helmand when he was offered £ 50 by the terrorists. Stephen Curley, 26, was killed in a roadside bomb. In another incident, a British royal marine was killed in Helmand when his patrol was attacked by unknown terrorists.

These are a few incidents that have badly affected the credibility of the Afghan army. According to a BBC report, Taliban infiltration into the Afghan army and police is a major concern as uniformed officers attack foreign troops every day. As a majority of Afghan generals have a fundamentalist jihadi background, they have recently adopted a non-cooperative policy towards neighbouring states and NATO as well. Their involvement in massive corruption, land grabbing and drug trafficking transmogrified the military face of the country.

This infiltration of the security forces by Taliban sympathisers is not new. On July 30, 2011, an Afghan army officer was arrested on suspicion of working for the Taliban and plotting suicide attacks. Gul Mohammed then confessed that he was working with Taliban commanders.

Gul Mohammad is not alone in this profitable business. Many officers in the Afghan intelligence and army are on the Taliban payroll. To identify rogue elements within the Afghan army, the US and NATO military command have begun to train counter-intelligence agents and introduce an advanced biometrics programme. The head of the NATO mission in Kabul, Lieutenant General William Caldwell, told reporters three months ago that some 222 agents had been trained for this purpose. The Taliban say that the Afghan shooters in nearly every incident are sleeper agents in the army or police. Ethnic imbalance is another issue that needs to be addressed. William Caldwell regretted the challenge of the ethnic makeup in the armed forces, which numbers some 285,000 people, including the police and air force. Ethnic and sectarian frictions and alienation among generals in the ministry of defence and the general staff is another issue that still needs to be solved. These unresolved issues have turned the army into a fragmented force, serving disparate interests and fighting in opposite directions.

The above-cited consecutive attacks on foreign forces indicate that Afghanistan’s military infrastructure may be transformed into an undeclared resistance movement against foreign forces. As per the controversial role of the Afghan army, military experts believe that the war on terror is going to be replaced by the war on a rogue Afghan army in the near future as it has turned its weapons on its coalition partners. Having ignored the instructions of their seniors, Afghan soldiers are not only killing their coalition partners but they also fight across the border. They are deeply involved in arms and drug trafficking. They have purchased houses, shops and expensive land in Pakistan and Iran.

The Afghan defence ministry accepts the drug cases in the Afghan army. Opium and hashish are their favourite food. Defection is increasing while hundreds of soldiers are fleeing their battalions every month because they have no idea about the consequences of this unpopular war. Afghan citizens consider the police and army soldiers uniformed thieves and drug addicts. US soldiers complain that the police openly grow marijuana and shoot up heroin at some stations. According to a US army trainer, “If we instituted drug testing in the Afghan army, we would lose three quarters to 85 percent of the Afghan army”.

In a recent e-mail letter I received from Afghanistan, one of my army friends informed me that weapons were being smuggled across the border. Pakistan has often complained about weapon smuggling into Balochistan. Pakistani Baloch insurgents still seek refuge in Afghanistan. Secular and nationalist guerrilla fighters are said to have their training camps in some provinces of the country from which they can easily cross the Afghan-Pakistan border to carry out attacks against the Pakistani security forces. There are one million Baloch who speak the Balochi language in Afghanistan.

The Baloch in Balkh, Aruzgan and Kandahar speak Pashto, while the Baloch of Badakhshan, Takhar and other northern provinces of Afghanistan speak the Persian language. With the support of some secret channels, the UK-based Baloch community demanded UN military intervention in Balochistan last week. A rally was organised by the Baloch Human Right Council (UK), Balochistan Liberation Organisation and World Sindhi Congress in front of the US Embassy in London on July 31, 2011.

The issue of so-called Pashtunistan still remains a major cause of tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan. A 100-year-old issue now has no importance for starving, poor, and jobless Afghans. This sold piece of land now has become just a political game. In his recent interview with a local TV Channel, Afghan General Shir Ahmad Karimi openly demanded the consent of President Karzai to allow him to strike back at Pakistani security forces in response to recent rocket attacks. General Karimi said that Afghanistan’s border ends on the Jhelum River in Pakistan. This statement by General Karimi came at a time when Pakistan was attempting to make successful Afghan reconciliation efforts.

The writer is the author of Afghanistan Beyond 2014 and Punjabi Taliban. He can be reached at zai.musakhan222@gmail.com