KABUL—Afghan authorities said they arrested several militants suspected of being accomplices in the massacre of school children in the Pakistani city of Peshawar amid a push to mend strained ties between Kabul and Islamabad.
The arrests of five Pakistani Taliban members in an Afghan operation come a month after the militant group attacked a military-run school in Peshawar last month, killing 150 people—most of them children. The tragedy prompted Pakistan’s military and intelligence chiefs to go to Kabul the next day
for closer cooperation in crushing insurgents that have found a haven along the porous 1,500-mile-long border between the two countries.
Afghan and foreign officials say the arrest of the five men on Afghan soil is evidence of those closer ties. An Afghan official said the arrests were part of a unilateral Afghan operation targeting men believed to have assisted the perpetrators of the Peshawar assault.
Afghan officials didn’t disclose the exact time and place of the operation, but Pakistani Taliban have long used lawless and remote areas of eastern Afghanistan as a haven, Pakistani and Western officials say. Pakistani intelligence had earlier traced the organizers of the Peshawar attackers to the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nangahar.
The arrests also build on a monthslong effort by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to reset ties with his country’s powerful, nuclear-armed neighbor.
Mr. Ghani, who took office in September,
traveled to Pakistan in November, meeting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad and holding talks with military officials in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the country’s security establishment.
Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, traveled to Kabul twice recently. The country’s powerful intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar, has paid three recent visits. All told, there have been at least a dozen cross-border visits by politicians, military and intelligence officials as well as businessmen since Mr. Ghani came to office—an unusual level of interaction between the often wary neighbors.
“There is a window of opportunity for another kind of relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said Franz-Michael Mellbin, the European Union’s ambassador to Afghanistan. “For the first time there seems to be a real exchange of views between the military and the intelligence side on substantive issues.”
Bilateral relations were especially strained under President Ghani’s predecessor, Hamid Karzai, who repeatedly went
public with his accusations that Pakistan fueled the Taliban insurgency as an instrument of policy.
Mr. Ghani has avoided directing strident rhetoric toward Islamabad in public. But in private conversations with his Pakistani counterparts, Mr. Ghani has spoken candidly, describing the status of the bilateral relationship as one of “undeclared hostility” in recent years, according to an Afghan official with knowledge of the meetings.
At stake for Mr. Ghani is Afghanistan’s long-term security. The Afghan Taliban have long used Pakistani territory as headquarters, and U.S. and Afghan officials say that Pakistan, which recognized the Taliban government, continued to tacitly support the movement after it was toppled by the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Islamabad has repeatedly denied this, although it acknowledges it has some influence over the group.
The Afghan Taliban are led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, who hasn’t appeared publicly since 2001. The Pakistani Taliban, who are allied with al Qaeda, operate separately from the Afghan Taliban, although they acknowledge Mullah Omar as a spiritual leader.
Washington has also become involved in encouraging Afghan-Pakistan dialogue. Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry traveled to Islamabad, where he met with the Pakistani prime minister. Mr. Kerry’s stopover coincided with a visit by Gen. Lloyd Austin, the head of U.S. Central Command, the U.S. military headquarters that oversees the region.
“The timing’s important in the wake of Peshawar, as President Ghani’s trying to really put emphasis and priority on his reconciliation program, which clearly looks to Pakistan as playing a very prominent role,” a senior State Department official said following Mr. Kerry’s meetings on Monday.
The Afghan Taliban still present a formidable threat to the Western-backed Afghan government. The U.S.-led combat mission formally ended in 2014, leaving Afghan forces largely alone in their fight against a strong insurgency.
Afghan and foreign officials say they are cautiously optimistic that Pakistan’s policy will change, but they are yet to see concrete action.
A key test will be this year’s fighting season, which starts annually after the snow thaws and mountain passes open. Afghan and foreign officials say the Taliban are preparing to launch an especially violent offensive.
The Afghan government will be watching for signs that Pakistan is taking steps to help stem the flow of fighters and weapons into the country. And officials on both sides say cooperation in border areas will be key.
Less clear, however, is whether a fragmented Taliban leadership can be encouraged to talk peace, particularly as radical groups such as Islamic State attempt to gain a foothold in the region. While Islamic State’s presence in Afghanistan is limited, observers say the group offers a rebranding opportunity for some militant commanders.
“Many mid-rank commanders have joined IS, they are challenging their leadership,” said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies. “Will they be ready for the reconciliation or the compromise with Kabul, or with Washington? This is the problem.”
—Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/kabul-arrests-militants-suspected-of-role-in-pakistan-school-attack-1421353059
