AFTER Doha a week ago, the venue for talks on Saturday between Islamabad and Kabul shifted to Istanbul in an attempt to find ways to prevent the TTP from using its sanctuaries along the border in Afghanistan to mount terror attacks in Pakistan. A wave of lethal attacks on its security forces in the erstwhile tribal districts along the Durand Line had triggered a response by the Pakistani military in which aerial assets were used to target TTP safe havens on Afghan soil as deep inside as the capital Kabul.

The Afghan Taliban forces had retaliated by firing artillery on Pakistani positions along the border and as Pakistan responded with military muscle, international calls for restraint led to a ceasefire which was cemented in the Doha round between the two sides mediated by Qatar. In Doha, the Afghan Taliban delegation was led by the militant movement founder Mullah Omar’s son, Defence Minister Mullah Mohammed Yaqoob, who is said to be aligned with the Haqqani group led by Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani rather than the hard(er)-line ideologues’ Kandahar group under the supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhunzada.

To a rank outsider like me, some of the speculation of serious internal differences within the Afghan Taliban movement between the Kandahar group and the Haqqanis seems exaggerated as decisions taken by the supreme leader are implemented by all, even if this happens after a bit of to and fro, indicating a process of consultation.

Despite some Taliban leaders’........

© Dawn