Pahalgam Attack: Why did Taliban-ruled Afghanistan support India, not Pakistan?

Acting Afghan FM Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi meets Indian diplomat Anand Prakash

Taliban-ruled Afghanistan shocked Islamabad when it chose to support India in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack. After meeting an Indian delegation headed by MEA joint secretary Anand Prakash, who handles Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi strongly condemned the attack on April 22, in which 26 people were killed. Earlier too, the Taliban condemned the terrorist attack and said that such incidents undermine efforts to ensure regional security and stability. 

India reaches out to Taliban

As India has changed its policy on the Taliban and reached out to them on earlier occasions also, it is believed that the militant outfit will not allow Pakistan the strategic depth in Afghanistan so that anti-India elements sneak into Jammu and Kashmir and attack them or target Indian diplomats or others as in the past. Taliban has also assured Indian diplomats of providing enough security to carry out their activities fearlessly. 

Pakistan deports Afghan refugees

The Pahalgam attack came a few days after Islamabad launched the operation of forcefully deporting more than three million Afghans living in the country as refugees. The Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan government has decided to send all of these Afghan refugees in three phases. Confirming this, the United Nations International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said that it had assisted more than one million people returning from Pakistan and Iran.

Islamabad announced in March that it would send about 800,000 people in April. These are the people carrying Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by Pakistani authorities. Afghanistan is not happy with this decision. 

Clashes over Durand Line

Pakistan-Afghanistan relations took a nosedive soon after the militants captured Kabul in August 2021. The Durand Line, which separates the two countries, became a sticky point, and the two sides got engaged in skirmishes on many occasions. Afghanistan under the Taliban rejected the line established in 1893 by British civil servant Sir Henry Mortimer Durand and Afghan Emir Abdur Rahman Khan. Earlier too, Kabul rejected it as an international border, but with the Taliban at the helm of affairs, Islamabad had hoped to make it accept its hegemony. 

Pakistan-Afghanistan and TTP

The two sides have also quarreled openly over the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a terrorist outfit based in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa of Pakistan with sympathisers living on the other side of the border. The outfit aims to establish a Sharia-based rule in Pakistan; it is encouraged by the success of the Taliban in Afghanistan. They have made daring raids in Pakistan and targeted security forces, killing hundreds of its personnel. Islamabad wants the Taliban to rein in the Islamic outfit, while Afghanistan says the militants are not under its control. 

India has still not recognised the Taliban officially; however, it has reached out to the rulers in Afghanistan and assured them of continuing with the development projects started earlier. It is a big bargain for the Taliban, which needs to get support and recognition from outside to claim its legitimacy. It was a big relief for Afghanistan to receive an Indian delegation on their soil. Kabul was quick to receive the Indian diplomats with open arms and slam Pakistan for the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir.