Pakistan accuses India of funding Taliban, India denies it

Islamabad accuses India of funding Taliban to destabilise Pakistan; Shashi Tharoor, AK Antony and SM Krishna rejects the allegation.

Photo: Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister

Pakistan has accused India of funding the Taliban fighters located along the Pak-Afghan border in order to create mayhem in Pakistan.

Rehman Malik, Interior Minister of Pakistan, in an interview to a television channel, went to the extent of saying that he is prepared to furnish the government of India with evidence to that effect.

Rehman Malik asserted that he is “convinced” about India funding the Taliban and that there are “elements” that do not want Pakistan to be stable.” When asked whether India was among those “elements,” he replied: “Of course.”

He went on to say: “If the Interior Minister of India or anyone else wants to confront me, I will be happy to confront them since I know what I am saying.”

In addition, the Pakistan Interior Minister reiterated that India is fomenting Pakistan’s problems in Balochistan.

There are many political commentators in Pakistan who agree with what Rehman Malik said about India’s alleged role in trouble in their country. Fozia Saeed, renowned academic, has been quoted by the media as saying that there are more Indians in Afghanistan than foreigners from any other country and that he feels “there may be more than meets the eye.”

The Pakistani media had reported that one of the Taliban militants who was killed was found uncircumcised. However, this has not been officially acknowledged.

India has strongly rejected Pakistan’s charge that it is helping and funding the Taliban militants against Pakistan.

Minister for External Affairs Minister S M Krishna stressed that India in fact wants the Taliban and “Talibanism” to be completely eliminated.

A K Antony, Minister for Defence, rubbished Pakistan’s allegations as “totally baseless and absurd.” He asserted that India will not and cannot back Taliban, which is “the greatest threat to peace in the world,” Antony told reporters in New Delhi on the sidelines of a function connected with Defence.

Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said the government of India is “not at all in the business of destabilising its neighbours.” India is not interested in creating trouble in Pakistan, Shashi Tharoor said, adding that such acts are “not our style” or the kind of policy that India pursues.

Many political observers in India sees Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s invective directed against India as Islamabad’s bid to add insult to India’s injuries. Malik’s comments have come at a time when hostility towards India has been widely recognised as one of the driving forces behind the very existence of the Taliban.

It may be noted that Rehman Malik’s outbursts against India came close on the heels of  India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao saying the other day that India had conveyed its displeasure and disappointment to Pakistan over that country’s “slow and tardy’’ progress in probing the Mumbai attacks.

Nirupama Rao had also said that the recent blast outside the Indian embassy in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, appeared to have been executed by “forces from across the border.’’ However, she had hastened to add that the Indian government would wait for the final investigation report on the incident from the authorities in Kabul.

While anything is possible – in theory – it is extremely unlikely that India has found a faction with the Taliban that it can manipulate for its own objectives. Taliban may hate the Pakistani government of aligning with the United States in its battle agaist the Taliban and Al Qaida – but do even a small faction of them dislike Pakistani government enough to ally with India? We can’t wait to see the “evidence” Rehman Malik claims to have to support his allegations!