Pakistan’s role in helping the Taliban seize power in Afghanistan is made clear by exposing the identities of militants trained and sent by the Pakistani army.
A large number of them are from Punjab, who were sent by the army after a brief period of training in the camps led by the Lashkar-e-Taiba to strengthen the ranks of the Taliban.
The Punjab is home to two of the most famous terrorist groups in the Pakistani army: Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
Although the exact number of Punjabi militants, mostly LeT, is not known, several estimates suggest a figure of more than 10,000.
In Kandahar, LeT cadres were seen fighting alongside the Taliban. Numerous LeT paintings have also died.
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The LeT team was led by Saifullah Khalid, who was killed in fighting in Kandahar’s Nawahi district along with 11 of his accomplices.
Khalid was replaced by another LeT commander from Punjab named Imran. He had previously operated in Kashmir, where he was involved in terrorist activities.
It is also known that Pakistan had organized the transportation of the bodies of murdered militants to their native places.
Pakistan also set up makeshift hospitals for the wounded LeT and other Pakistani cadres fighting in Afghanistan.
Reports of the army forcing youths to join the Taliban war machine have also come from different districts of Pakistan. The places where maximum recruitment has taken place, in many cases forced, are Quetta, Dera Ismail Khan, Karak, Hangu, Kohat, Peshawar, Mardan and Nowshera.
These reports are corroborated by the incidents of a large number of young people fleeing these cities in Karachi to flee forced recruitment to fight in Afghanistan.
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In fact, the active role of Pak-based militant groups in Afghanistan has been known for some time.
The LeT has had strengths in Afghanistan since the 1990s and the group continued to train and fight alongside the Taliban even after 2001.
With the active support of the Pakistani army, the group had begun consolidating its position in at least more than eight districts in Afghanistan following the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Similarly, Jaish-e-Mohammad had also found some bases in Nangarhar province that the Pakistani army used to train cadres for Kashmir.
JeM leader Masood Azhar has a close relationship with the Taliban leadership and has sent pictures of his suit based in Punjab to support Taliban fighters.
Both JeM and LeT had also used abandoned training sites for al-Qaeda to recruit and train new cadres from Pakistan, mainly from the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.