In recent weeks, top diplomats and defence experts have expressed concern that the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan could affect the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, due to the insurgent group’s close ties to Pakistan’s ISI and regional terror groups. Additionally, Congressman Michael Waltz has said a resurgent Taliban means violence will escalate in the Union Territory due to terror-related activity.
Mike Waltz, a Republican representative from Florida’s 6th Congressional District, commented in an interview with India Today TV that ‘there will be Al Qaeda 3.0’ if the Taliban seize power in Afghanistan. Taliban-Lashkar-e-Taiba ties will lead to serious terror issues in Kashmir. Waltz, a former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan, also claimed that Pakistan was tacitly supporting the hardline Islamist group.
‘Pakistan supports these terror groups — the Haqqanis, LeT and the Taliban. Pakistan must be held accountable’, he said.’After 20 years of military presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban managed to wrest control of the country for the first time in a week-long blitz’, the veteran said. During an interview with Waltz, he was asked about the holdout province of Panjshir and he said he fully supported the resistance forces’ stance against the Taliban. According to him, the US government should have recognized deposed vice president Amrullah Saleh, believed to be in Panjshir, as the acting president after Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
‘I have requested a report on whether the Pakistani military is supporting the Taliban offensive within Afghanistan and in Panjshir. If true, action against them should be taken,’ he said. Taking aim at US President Joe Biden, Waltz said his ‘shameful’ actions and insistence on hanging on to August 31 would leave many US and Afghan allies stranded, at the mercy of the Taliban and their harsh interpretation of Sharia Law.
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During the Taliban assault on Kabul, the former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani requested US military support so that the Taliban would not be able to advance. According to Waltz, ‘Ghani did not have any plans to flee Kabul. He kept asking for support. Had he received the support he had promised (especially air support), Afghan forces would not have surrendered,’ he said. Moreover, he bemoaned the strategic losses that the US suffered when it pulled out of Afghanistan. According to him, the removal of Bagram has cost the US a huge strategic space with China and Russia.
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