Pakistan considers Afghan Taliban as reliable anti-India element, US Congress report

Pakistan views the Afghan Taliban as a friendly and reliable anti-India element in Afghanistan.

Pakistan views the Afghan Taliban as a friendly and reliable anti-India element in Afghstan.

As per a new report by US Congress, Pakistan's security establishment, fearful of strategic encirclement by India, continues to support the Afghan Taliban, reported Daily Outlook Afghstan.

The report published by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said that Pakistan played an active, and by many accounts negative, role in Afghan affairs for decades.

"Pakistan's security services maintain ties to Afghan Taliban group, most notably the Haqq Network," the report said.

"Despite official Pakist leadership's statements to the contrary, Islamabad may view a weak and destabilised Afghstan as preferable to a strong, unified Afghan state (particularly one led by an ethnic Pashtun-dominated government in Kabul; Pakistan has a large and restive Pashtun minority)," according to the report.

The report also said that given the outsized role that US support plays in bolstering the Afghan government, many experts warn that a full-scale US withdrawal and/or aid cut-off could lead to its collapse and perhaps even to the reestablishment of formal Taliban rule over some or all of the country, reported Daily Outlook Afghstan.

It said that the Taliban are in a stronger military position now than at any point since 2001.

( With inputs from ANI )