In a rebuff to Pakistani designs, the Taliban have replaced governor of Kunar province Qari Osman, a Pakistani national, with an Afghan citizen Maulvi Mohammad Qasim Khan.
As reported earlier by The Pioneer, Pakistan has been planting leaders of its terror affiliates as governors and at senior positions in the governance structure there with an ulterior motive to control the decision making process in Afghanistan that was taken over by Taliban on August 15.
Before being unseated, Osman had sold 10 howitzer guns left over by the US forces to opposition groups in Kunar in lieu of money, sources on the ground said.
The development signals Taliban’s resolve to get rid of the country from Pakistanis occupying key positions there.
Afghanistan Republic Salvation Front founder and counter-terrorism expert of Afghan origin Ajmal Sohail said, “It is a good sign that the Taliban is seized of the Pakistani plot and has begun replacing foreigners from key positions with local leaders as was the case with removal of Kunar governor Qari Osman who is a Pakistani national.”
As part of the plot to control administration across provinces in Afghanistan, the Pakistan Army-ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) combine has been planting its homegrown terror commanders as Governors of Afghan provinces bordering Pakistan.
The ISI is also foisting its men in the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghan intelligence agency, and other such offices of the Government to have a significant leverage in strategic planning and action by the new regime in Kabul where Pakistan has already installed the Haqqani Network as a key player in Kabul.
Earlier, the ISI had planted 50,000 jehadis in the ranks of Afghan national defence force by providing them bogus refugee cards portraying them as Afghan residents residing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan, before recruitment into Afghan national defence force that subsequently melted away amid the Taliban onslaught last month.
The Governor for Afghanistan’s Kunar province, popularly known as Qari Osman, was originally a resident of Gabri in Mamondo Tehsil, Bajaur Agency of Pakistan. Osman was educated at Inayat Qala Government School, Bajaur (Pakistan) till ninth standard and had married twice. He has one house and family in Bajaur and the other in Peshawar.
Osman’s younger brother Shahidullah is the Taliban district Governor for Marawara of Kunar province. His other brother is Zabihullah who is an ISI operative and works in Peshawar’s Bala Hissar.
Osman’s elder brother, Najibullah, works for ISI in Bajaur.
In addition to posting Osman and his brother as Governors in Afghanistan’s Kunar province and districts, the ISI has also supplanted its men in other provinces along the Tajikistan border, eastern and northern Afghanistan besides Nuristan province as reported earlier.
The ISI’s game plan is a deliberate plot aimed at having a firm and effective grip over Taliban to achieve its strategic agenda through the regime in Kabul. However, the Taliban has taken the first step of weeding out such plants within the administration, Sohail added.