<p>
Although the Pakistani military establishment makes public statements about not have any &ldquo;connections&rdquo; with top leaders of the Taliban and Pakistan says it is not in&nbsp;favour of the Taliban forcibly taking over Kabul, &nbsp;in reality the situation is quite different.</p>
<p>
Pakistan&rsquo;s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid came out in full support of the Taliban&rsquo;s advance in Afghanistan on Sunday when he told Pakistani media that&nbsp;the &ldquo;good Taliban&rdquo; were advancing and gaining power in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;It is important, not only for Pakistan, but the entire region to initiate talks with the Afghan Taliban,&rdquo; Pakistani daily <a href="https://nation.com.pk/12-Jul-2021/good-taliban-gaining-power-in-afghanistan"><em>The Nation</em> quoted the minister</a> as saying. The Minister said the Talibans are part of Afghanistan and like all Afghans, they do have the right to &ldquo;choose&rdquo; their government.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The good Taliban and the bad Taliban theory has been Pakistan&rsquo;s hypocritical strategy towards heavily-armed militant groups fighting either in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Pakistan&rsquo;s all-pervasive security services, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), is reported to have close links with the Afghan Taliban. The ISI has long been obsessed with the idea that controlling Afghanistan would give Pakistan the &ldquo;strategic depth&rdquo; needed to challenge its main adversary, India. A Taliban regime in Kabul is the best guarantee for that.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Sheikh Rashid is not alone in cheering Taliban&rsquo;s &ldquo;victories&rdquo;&nbsp; in Afghanistan. Maulana Fazlur Rehaman, president of Jamait Ulema e Islam (JUI) and chief of Pakistani Democratic Movement (PDM) was seen celebrating at a political rally last week.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;After the US withdrawal, the situation is changing in Afghanistan. Inshallah, Taliban will be victorious,&rdquo; Rehaman declared. Rehman is a pro-Taliban Pakistani politician. Ironically, while he is fighting for democracy in Pakistan, he is also praying for a strong Taliban rule&nbsp;in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>
On Friday, a number of people on motorbikes and in cars were seen in a viral&nbsp;video on social media,&nbsp;chanting slogans in favour of Taliban on the main University Road near Hayatabad&nbsp;of Peshawar. Some people were also seen carrying Taliban&rsquo;s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan flags. The people in the video were said to be returning after attending a funeral in Regi.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
This is no more an undeclared war.<br />
In this video, filmed last night, hundreds of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Taliban?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Taliban</a> can be seen chanting slogans to recruit more fighters while recieving dead bodies of their terrorist friends in the center of Peshawer city.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EndPakProxyWarInAfg?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EndPakProxyWarInAfg</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hrw?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hrw</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/FATFNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FATFNews</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/mjdawar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mjdawar</a> <a href="https://t.co/by0V3XfT2z">pic.twitter.com/by0V3XfT2z</a></p>
&mdash; Abdullah Hasrat &#127462;&#127467; (@AH_Hasrat) <a href="https://twitter.com/AH_Hasrat/status/1413812367171850245?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p>
Senior opposition leader of Pakistan People&rsquo;s Party Farhatullah Babar took to twitter to condemn the incident.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Dead bodies of Pakistanis fighting in Afghanistan brought back for burial. Taliban regrouping in ex-tribal districts. Apologists raise Taliban flags and slogans in broad daylight in a provincial metropolis,&rdquo; Babar said.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Taliban seem supported by proxies to secure military victories enough to negotiate a favourable political settlement but not enough to overrun the country militarily. Their backers may take pride in devising a calibrated policy. But this calibration has ruined two generations,&rdquo; he added.</p>
<p>
Last month, in an interview to an Afghan news channel, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Quereshi&nbsp;denied that there were Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan and said most of their leaders &ldquo;are in Afghanistan.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
When asked specifically about the presence of Quetta and Peshawar Shuras, or councils, he denied the existence of such institutions in Pakistan and said he &ldquo;has been hearing of these terms for decades now.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
But a few days later Imran Khan&rsquo;s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid contradicted his cabinet colleague by openly saying that families of Afghani Taliban militants live in various regions, including Islamabad&#39;s famous areas, and are sometimes treated in local hospitals.</p>
<p>
&quot;Sometimes, the bodies of their soldiers are brought to hospitals, and sometimes they come here for treatment,&quot; Rashid told Pakistani Channel Geo TV.</p>
<p>
Pakistan is clearly aiming to increase its influence in Afghanistan and play a greater role in the region to checkmate India.</p>
<p>
<strong>Also Read: <a href="https://www.indianarrative.com/world-news/we-brought-them-up-but-today-taliban-is-closer-to-india-says-pakistan-s-former-security-czar-98899.html">We brought them up but today Taliban is &ldquo;closer&rdquo; to India, says Pakistan&rsquo;s former security Czar</a></strong></p>
<p>
<strong>Also Read: <a href="https://www.indianarrative.com/world-news/pakistan-s-qureshi-warns-afghan-president-to-stop-pointing-fingers-at-the-isi-96662.html">Pakistan&rsquo;s Qureshi warns Afghan President to stop pointing fingers at the ISI</a></strong></p>
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