ISLAMABAD (MCT) — Experts have long theorized that Pakistan’s preferred scenario for a postwar Afghanistan includes the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul. A security think tank’s 2011 email, recently reported by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, suggests that may not be the case.
The email, drafted by Kamran Bokhari, an analyst with the private think tank Stratfor, describes a meeting that Bokhari had in April 2011 with Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who at the time was chief of Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s main spy agency.
In the email, Bokhari recounts Pasha’s views on Afghanistan and the U.S.-led 10-year war with Afghan Taliban insurgents. “He said the Americans are stuck with the old notion that Pakistan wants to see the Taliban come to power again in Afghanistan. … This is an outdated view, because Islamabad has long given up that goal, given the threat to Pakistani security. We do not wish to see the Talibs dominate Afghanistan.’’
