Are there two separate Talibans or one coordinated Taliban?
If we look at the Afghan Taliban, we are basically talking
about the group that ran Afghanistan right up until just after 9/11.
Their remnants and their leader, Mullah Omar,
by most accounts are said to be based somewhere inside Pakistan,
probably inside Balochistan. And then you have a significant offshoot
that also swears allegiance to him: the Haqqani Network,
based further to the north in North Waziristan, also inside Pakistan.
The Afghan Taliban is notable for having hosted bin Laden and embracing a
worldview that is backward, violent, and extreme. However, they are
Afghanistan-oriented and focused. There really have been no instances of
the Afghan Taliban turning their guns on the Pakistani state, attacking
the people of Pakistan, or, more importantly in this case, the
military.
So, the Pakistani Taliban is different?
Yes, quite different. The Pakistani Taliban, which has a
younger lifespan, really came about in the mid-2000s, broadly in
response to Pakistani military operations that took place inside
Pakistan, but along the Afghan border. This group is dedicated to many
of the same broad ends as the Afghan Taliban, and have even sworn
allegiance to the Afghan Taliban to those ends. But they are also
dedicated to attacking the Pakistani military, state, and civilians,
which they have done to devastating effect, over the past decade or so.
They are responsible for killing former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, shooting the young student and now global education activist Malala Yousafzai,
for blowing up of the Marriot hotel in Islamabad—the list goes on. So
they are much more actively at war with the Pakistani state.
But it is often said that the Pakistani government is the one who supports the Taliban.
If we say that the Pakistani government supports the
Taliban, and we say that the Pakistani government is the target of the
Taliban, we are telling the truth in both instances. And you could even
say that the Afghan Taliban (i.e., the older Taliban) is playing a
double game on the Pakistani state. On the one hand, they have said they
won't attack the Pakistani state, and in doing so, they or more or less
get safe haven inside the tribal areas along the Afghan border, they
have a truce and, some people would say, an even closer working
relationship with the Pakistani state. And on the other hand, the Afghan
Taliban have been helpful to the Pakistani Taliban, they are an
inspiration to the Pakistani Taliban, and they also, by many accounts,
provide them with training, access to financing, and sometimes even
fighters.
Regarding this latest attack on the Karachi airport, there
is a claim that Uzbek fighters were responsible for the attack. This
may or may not be true, but these are the kinds of people who would
float back and forth between the different Taliban groups.
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