Pakistan not only has supported militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, but also sabotaged over recent years any peace efforts aimed to bring an end to the long-standing Afghan conflict. One example of Pakistan’s such disruptive moves was the arrest of the Taliban’s deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in 2010. According to media reports at the time, Islamabad decided to detain the Taliban’s co-founder after Pakistani officials found out that he had made contacts with the Afghan government. He was arrested in a joint operation of Pakistani and American agents. Kabul repeatedly asked Islamabad to release or hand him over to Afghan government, but Pakistani officials ignored the calls until he was freed from Pakistani custody in October 2018 at the request of the American government.
After his release, he was appointed as the third deputy of Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of Taliban, and head of Taliban’s Qatar office. He was expected to join the Taliban’s Doha team, but Pakistani officials still seemed unready to let him join the peace talks even after he was freed, and were therefore creating problems for his departure from Pakistan.
Mullah Baradar has now reached Qatar and is leading the fifth round, but the highest-level negotiations yet between the Khalilzad-led American delegation and Taliban representatives. It is an encouraging step since Mullah Baradar is widely viewed as the most prominent Taliban leader in favor of finding a political settlement for the Afghan conflict. Moreover, he appears to be an opponent of Islamabad’s too much influence over Taliban, and his arrest by Pakistan is a clear indication of the opposition. If reports of Baradar’s contacts with Afghan government in 2010 turn to be true, his arrival in Doha is not only a key step in peace talks with Americans, but can also help in paving the way for direct Taliban-Afghan government talks.
With his participation in the peace process, the ongoing peace talks in Qatar should focus on facilitating intra-Afghan dialogue and ceasefire. It is the best opportunity to encourage the Taliban to agree to the ceasefire on the one hand and convince them on the other hand that talks with an inclusive Afghan team composed of representatives of Afghan government and prominent political figures is an inescapable necessity and reality, without which peace talks will not come to fruition. As the deputy leader and co-founder of Taliban whom Mullah Omar had called his “brother”, Mullah Baradar’s role in both aspects is crucial.