Pakistan’s strategic establishment and segments of the Pakistani ruling class and elite may be celebrating the Taliban’s triumph in Afghanistan but this triumphalism will come back to hurt Pakistan. After all, if the Afghan Taliban can take over power in Afghanistan, why can the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan or Tehreek e Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah not form an Islamic state in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan?
As an editorial recently noted, “the Taliban have a number of ideological fellow travellers in this country, including jihadi and sectarian outfits, who are overjoyed by the Afghan group’s victory.”
This was evidenced by Afghan Taliban white flags raised at Jamia Hafsa — a seminary associated with Islamabad’s infamous Lal Masjid and its militant clerics- in the heart of the federal capital.
This Lal Masjid incident, among others, shows that hardline elements within Pakistan have always had “the intention to replace the constitutional order with an obscurantist dispensation, and the Taliban victory has only put the wind back in their sails. Pakistan has suffered greatly due to religiously inspired militancy and cannot afford a new wave of terrorism.”
