Taliban’s secret ties with Pakistan’s ISI exposed in letter

A letter linked to the Taliban has disclosed that the group has secret ties with Pakistan’s intelligence establishment. The anonymous letter released to the media said the Inter-Services Intelligence or the ISI has substantial control over the Taliban.

“I was invited to the Qatar’s peace meeting by the Emirate. Unfortunately, when I arrived in Qatar, the situation was worse than Quetta, Pakistan as the ISI still had its active role among the Taliban’s representatives. Mullah Baradar, head of the Taliban’s Qatar-based political office was in the front but behind the walls it was all up to the ISI who have been involved in every step and was the decision maker of the Taliban’s office” the letter reads, without identifying the writer.

As per the Afghanistan Times report, the writer had seen that the ISI had open access to every member of the group’s political office and Taliban representatives were seen walking freely inside the Pakistani Embassy in Qatar.

“Another issue I have witnessed is that members of the office were spying for ISI against each other. In return for some scholarships and Pakistani ID cards, ISI has appointed the purest people of our frontier as its spy figures,” the letter claims.

The letter says that the peace deal was first supposed to be signed by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, but the ISI replaced him with Baradar as signatory.

“About a couple of hours before the peace deal signing, Maulavi Shahabuddin Attal told the reporters that the deal would not be signed by Baradar. But Baradar received a phone call from Islamabad and was told that Stanikzai should not sign the agreement as he had a verbal dispute with ISI General Asim and that he was earlier in Afghan military and was trained in India. So, Baradar called Stanikzai and said that he himself would sign the agreement. Stanikzai was smart, so he accepted the offer,” the letter said.

“Then the Qatari officials and Taliban’s ceremonials came and briefed Baradar about the next morning’s summit. The Qatari officials said that before the peace ceremony, a guide would come to his room and would lead you to the Salon, and he would be greeting people on the front line, where senior officials would be set, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,” the letter added.