Ghazni jailbreak

The Afghan Taliban have staged one of the biggest jailbreaks in Afghanistan in years, helping whisk 355 prisoners out of the well-protected Ghazni jail, after carrying out a raid early on the morning of September 13. A car bomb explosion killed four police personnel stationed outside the jail and assisted the Taliban operatives dressed in security uniform to enter the prison. It appears that the raid had been carefully planned with Afghan Taliban prisoners inside the jail having staged a revolt against a planned transfer to Kabul jail. The raid is obviously embarrassing for the authorities and raises questions about how well-prepared and well-equipped Afghan forces are when it comes to handling security in the volatile country. This is the third major jailbreak staged by the Afghan Taliban since 2008, with the group having recently stepped up its activities in Afghanistan.



Even as the scenario unfolded in Ghazni, key US and Pakistani officials held talks in Islamabad on how to bring Afghanistan back to the negotiating table in a bid to control the perilous situation in the country. The top US general posted in Kabul and President Barack Obama’s acting special adviser on Pakistan and Afghanistan, met Army Chief General Raheel Sharif to discuss what the best course of action should be. It was agreed that Kabul needed to be persuaded by both nations to revive the stalled dialogue process with the Afghan Taliban. This will remain a difficult task given the recent attacks on key targets by the Taliban in Afghanistan. At the very least, Pakistan will have to work hard to allay Afghan concerns regarding Pakistani territory being used to launch attacks on Afghan soil. Complaints regarding this have continued to come in from Kabul and are reported also to have been taken up by the US. What both countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, need to do is to tame the Afghan Taliban. If this involves Kabul returning to the negotiating table, then all measures that could make this happen must be pursued by Pakistan. Both countries need to start cooperating with each other without engaging in power games of their own. There is really no alternative to this given the danger inherent in the current situation.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th,  2015.

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