Pakistan’s outrage at Taliban foreign minister’s visit to Deoband seminary: ‘Remember our sacrifices’

Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s visit to India last month was tagged groundbreaking for how it reset India's Afghan policy and the realpolitik which could result in both countries upgrading their diplomatic and political links.

While Muttaqi was in the country for three days, one agenda item of his visit grabbed eyeballs. The Taliban leader visited the 135-year-old Deoband seminary at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, where he was received with much fanfare. The leaders of the seminary beamed in pride as Muttaqi declared, “Deoband is like the mother of our knowledge”.

But, it didn’t generate the same reaction in Pakistan, which retaliated by conducting air raids in Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul.

A month since the historic visit, things haven't cooled down between both two countries, and the second round of talks between Pakistan and the  Afghan Taliban regime in Istanbul ended without any breakthrough.

Pakistani religious leaders too minced no words when attacking the Taliban minister for visiting the Deoband seminary in Uttar Pradesh. Peshawar-based religious scholar Tayyab Qureshi told The New York Times that the visit was an expression of ungrateful Taliban seeking new patrons. “Muttaqi, who learned his religious scholarship and even his Urdu language here in Pakistan, not in Deoband, needs to remember the sacrifices Pakistan paid in their support,” Qureshi said. “New Delhi is tactfully leveraging the friction between Islamabad and Kabul to advance its own agenda.”

Recently, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has stated that India was  waging a “low-intensity” war against Pakistan from Afghanistan,  adding that New Delhi is trying to “settle the score”.

Asif, who produced no evidence to back the claims, alleged “there was no doubt about Afghanistan having become an 'Indian proxy”.

Mr. Omari, the Afghan deputy interior minister, warned Pakistan against any further military action. And he flexed the Taliban’s asymmetrical victory against American military might, wondering aloud whether Pakistan might be next.

“You may have airplanes and tanks, but we have the kind of fighters who are sitting here itching for when jihad will begin again,” he said. “Because, when you are addicted to, say, chewing tobacco — excuse my language — you can’t quit so easily.

“Our fighters are used to these wars over the past 20-25 years,” he said, “and they are wishing for another war to be rewarded with martyrdom.”

Afghanistan, too, has minced no words in threatening Pakistan. Mohammad Nabi Omari, Deputy Minister of Interior of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, had warned that areas beyond the Durand  Line, which were once lost by Afghanistan, may eventually return to Afghan territory. “The more we analyse, the more we reflect, it appears that the historical lands of Afghanistan, which have remained with them (Pakistan), and the so-called line drawn between us, Allah Almighty may create the means to return them.

Omari also warned that Pakistan “might have airplanes and tanks, but we have the kind of fighters who are sitting here itching for when jihad will begin again,” he said. “Because, when you are addicted to, say, chewing tobacco — excuse my language — you can’t quit so easily. Our fighters are used to these wars over the past 20-25 years,” he said, “and they are wishing for another war to be rewarded with martyrdom.” 

Middle East