The Taliban stormed into Kabul on Sunday. It was not the event by itself, but the pace at which it happened -- that shocked the global economy and the observers. It was always expected that the Taliban would regain control, but everybody assumed it would happen several months down the line.

Now, two things have happened since - China and Pakistan have been the first two countries to recognise the new Taliban government. It changes things on two aspects for India. One, it means a leg up for the two countries that have been somewhat belligerent towards India - Pakistan and China - with this alliance with Afghanistan, it becomes an issue possibly for the state of Kashmir. And the other issue is, the US is now seen as a withdrawing power and China is seen as the ascending power in this particular event. What does that mean for India? Pramit Pal Chaudhary, senior editor of foreign affairs at Hindustan Times, discussed this further.

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He believes that the recent developments in Afghanistan could lead to a rise in terrorist threats globally.

“I think the real issue will be the sense of accomplishment by the ISI in Pakistan. They have been, to some degree, on the backfoot for the past several years, partly because of Pakistan's economic problems, and our closer relationship with the United States, and events somewhat like the Pulwama bombing, which have made them a little wary of pushing the envelope as far as India is concerned. But now they have ended what they have always been scared of, a two-front war with a hostile Afghanistan and a hostile India. The Taliban is an organisation that has obviously, not only been created by Pakistan, but has been carefully nurtured by them as well. So, there is a sense that perhaps now is an opportunity to start pushing the envelope again, especially with the situation in Kashmir and article 370 abrogation. That is, I think the biggest concern that India will have,” he said.

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“So, both America, the West, to a lesser extent Al-Qaeda doesn't target India that much – will be looking at the new Taliban regime and saying, did you learn any lessons or are you going to go down that same path? So, you are going to get a lot more airport checks over the next six months and the Pentagon recently gave a briefing to the Senate saying that counter terrorism, terrorist threats globally will be rising because of this,” he shared.

For the full interview, watch the accompanying video.

Catch all the latest updates on Afghanistan here.

(Edited by : Dipika Ghosh)

First Published:Aug 17, 2021 1:56 PM IST