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Islamabad Could Face Fallout Over Mansour's Death: Analysts
 [Tolo News] Former head of the Afghan National Directorate of Security...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) Rahmatullah Nabil and ex-US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad have said that the killing of the Taliban's leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in Pakistain territory could be a dangerous issue for Pakistain. Speaking to TOLOnews, Khalilzad said that Pakistain will change into a second North Korea by pursuing a partial policy of supporting the bad boys. According to Khalilzad, the attack could expand rifts within the group and the Pakistain spy agency, ISI, will likely try to appoint Sirajuddin Haqqani ...son of Pashtun warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, still titular head of the Haqqani Network.... as the Taliban's new leader. The U.S drone strike on Mansour, 70 kilometers inside Pak territory, has drawn strong reactions from the U.S and Afghan intelligence officials and politicians. Analysts say that the attack could be an alarm for Pakistain. The attack happened just days after the U.S Congress leveled strong criticism against Pakistain over its reluctance to target bad boy groups and the Taliban leadership. According to Nabil meanwhile, the attack has complicated facets, but that it will increase the morale of the Afghans security forces on the battlefields. "I think there are three important aspects to Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour's killing, the first issue is that if the attack came as part of a joint intelligence sharing mission between Pakistain and the US, then Pakistain would have taken the decision for its national interests as part of Pakistain's struggle to reduce US criticism. The second is that Pakistain strived to nominate Sirajuddin Haqqani as deputy head of the Taliban's military wing, however Pakistain did this in line with its own interests. Haqqani has a lot of money and his involvement in drug smuggling boosted his capabilities to launch Taliban's military operations," Nabil said. "The third is that Pakistain likely tried to remove a failed and weak Taliban leader, because Mansour was ranked in the third or fourth categories of Taliban and it was Pakistain that brought him up to this level, but this was a wrong decision by Pakistain, now that Mansour is no longer alive, Pakistain will try to designate a powerful Taliban figure as a new leader and this could be Zakir Abdul Qayoum or Mullah Baradar," he said. "ISI is likely to convene another mass gathering as it did for Mullah Mansour and ISI will provide security for it. This time it can be a mass gathering or a small gathering in the corner of a Madrasa where they will invite a few people and will issue the decree. It has implications in the short term, because the idea of the world and the U.S about Haqqani is quite clear and this can complicate the grinding of the peace processor in Afghanistan," Nabil further said. Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea, one that didn't involve kerosene... former U.S ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmai Khalilzad has said that the U.S can increase pressure on Pakistain. "Targeting the Taliban leader inside Pak territory itself is a big issue. Because the U.S had rejected the assumption that Taliban leaders will not be targeted inside Pakistain. Following this, the Taliban leaders will live there with fear and they (Taliban) must realize that they are no longer safe in their hideouts and the one who rejects peace with the Afghan government will be killed, this indicates that the U.S policy toward Pakistain is now harsher and pressure has increased," said Khalilzad. Mansour's killing has also drawn positive reaction from a number of U.S senators and members of congress. Posted by: Fred 2016-05-23 |
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