Exploiting its leverage with the Taliban, the Pakistani covert agency Inter-Services Intelligence is feeding misinformation to maximise attacks against Indians and the assets in Afghanistan.
The ISI manoeuvre has posed a threat by Taliban not only to the Indian embassy in Afghanistan but to those in the entire region, sources said.
The ISI has convinced the Taliban that India had bombed a group of Taliban in Kandahar province of Afghanistan. It has further told the UN-sanctioned group that attack helicopters and military planes that were built in India were handed over to Afghan defense department some time ago, they said.
The ISI also told the Taliban that fighter jets were stationed in Kabul airport under Indian command with Indian pilots.
The ISI and Pakistan army has provided over 10,000 jehadis from the ranks of terror groups mentored by these two agencies within Pakistan to Taliban for wresting control of the territories in Afghanistan from the democratically elected government there led by Abdul Ghani.
In addition to this, the ISI has helped forge operational synergy between the Taliban and its terror cohorts like the Lashkar-e-Tayabba and Jaish-e-Mohammad for the violent takeover of territories in Afghanistan.
The ISI and Pakistan army are seeking to cement their leverage with the Taliban to have a significant say in managing the war-ravaged country and control banned drug trade in the scenario of takeover and subsequent rule in Afghanistan post-withdrawal of American troops early next month.
The Pakistani politico-military complex has drawn an elaborate plan to hoodwink China into funding it for securing the Chinese investments in the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in restive Balochistan under Pak occupation.
“Now that the Pakistani politico-military-ISI combine has fully exploited the Americans for funding and technology support under the garb of war against terror and at the same time provided safe haven to Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden at Abbottabad military garrison, Islamabad is seeking to milk the Chinese who apprehend the Taliban onslaught to spillover to its restive Xinxiang province predominantly inhabited by Uyghur Muslims,” an expert said.
Besides getting significant funding and military weaponry for securing Chinese interests both in CPEC and Xinxiang, Islamabad will also be getting backing from Beijing for bailouts for the economy that is in tatters post-Covid as also support at multilateral forum like Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and avoid sanctions for supporting terror and terror financing, he added.