Longing for Jihad, Former Taliban Fighters Join Militants’ War in Pakistan

As a baby finding out in a madrasa in Afghanistan, Mohammad Khalid Tahir dreamed of waging jihad. By the point he was a teen, he had joined the Taliban and celebrated after they seized energy from the U.S.-backed authorities two years in the past.

However the excessive from that victory didn’t final. Reassigned as a soldier within the capital, he often complained that he was bored and longed to return to his life’s goal, in accordance with his household.

So this spring, he did — however throughout the border in Pakistan.

“Our solely expectation is to be martyred,” Mr. Tahir says in a video of him en path to Pakistan that was considered by The New York Instances. A few month later, he was killed by Pakistani safety forces, his kin stated.

As a era of fighters raised in struggle now finds itself caught in a rustic at peace, hundredsof younger Taliban troopers have crossed illegally into Pakistan to battle alongside an rebel group, in accordance with Taliban members, native leaders and safety analysts.

Like Mr. Tahir, many say they’re decided to proceed waging jihad — wherever on this planet it takes them.

The exodus has renewed longstanding fears about violent extremism spilling out of Afghanistan below the Taliban and destabilizing neighboring international locations or sooner or later reaching Western targets. International locations from Russia and China to america and Iran have all raised alarms concerning the doable resurgence in Afghanistan of terrorist teams, like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, with extra world ambitions.

Taliban management has publicly condemned the outflow of fighters. The boys, who acknowledge that they’ve gone to Pakistan with out official permission, have joined a militant group often known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or T.T.P., which seeks to impose strict Islamist rule.

However whether or not Afghanistan’s authorities stems the tide will sign to the remainder of the world its potential and willingness to comprise extremist teams inside its borders.

“If you happen to have a look at how the Taliban are enabling the T.T.P., restraining however housing varied components of Al Qaeda, defending and shielding the alphabet soup of Central Asian militant organizations — all of this challenges the concept that the Taliban are critical about not permitting Afghanistan to be a secure haven of worldwide terrorism,” stated Asfandyar Mir, a senior knowledgeable at america Institute of Peace, a federal authorities establishment.

In Pakistan, the younger males have already helped gas a return of militant violence this 12 months, worsening tensions between the 2 governments. Pakistani authorities have accused Afghan officers of sheltering terror teams and turning a blind eye to their troopers becoming a member of the teams, which Taliban officers deny.

Final week, an Islamic State affiliate lengthy based mostly in Afghanistan carried out a suicide blast in Pakistan that killed round 60 folks. The bombing added to a mounting loss of life toll from comparable assaults by the T.T.P. which have grown extra frequent for the reason that Afghan Taliban got here to energy.

Over the previous 12 months, the T.T.P. has carried out not less than 123 assaults throughout Pakistan — about double the quantity it claimed within the 12 months earlier than the Taliban seized energy, in accordance with the Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Research, which displays extremist violence.

It’s unclear precisely what number of Afghans have crossed the border to hitch the T.T.P. or different teams, however it’s a small minority of the tens of 1000’s of former Taliban fighters.

“Younger males looking for thrill and journey is widespread in every single place; from Americas, to Europe to Asia, Africa and elsewhere,” stated Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Overseas Affairs. “This adventurism doesn’t replicate widespread tendencies or public opinion, slightly they’re anomalies.”

Those that go are pushed by yearslong non secular schooling in Taliban-run madrasas that extol the beliefs of world jihad and martyrdom, they and their kin say. Others are bored of their new peacetime roles as troopers or cops charged with mundane duties like manning checkpoints and doing routine safety sweeps.

Many are additionally invigorated by the collapse of the Western-backed authorities in Afghanistan.

“Peace and safety have been secured in our nation, so now we have to combat in different international locations and safe the rights of different Muslims,” a Taliban member named Wahdat stated one current night whereas he drank tea alongside a handful of his colleagues in Kabul.

“It’s extra necessary to go there and proceed our jihad there than to remain in our nation,” his buddy, Malang added. Mr. Wahdat and Mr. Malang, each 22 and now cops, most well-liked to go solely by their final names as a result of they weren’t approved to talk to the press.

Each males grew up in Wardak Province, a stretch of central Afghanistan that harbored deep assist for the Taliban, the place many years of struggle reworked the younger era. Colleges run by the Taliban cropped up throughout the province. Boys aspired to wage jihad slightly than labor on their household’s farms.

“Our village had been recognized for producing engineers and medical doctors earlier than the wars,” stated Abdulbari Wasil Sardar, 38, a resident of Wardak whose 17-year-old nephew, Muhammad Idrees Suhaib, was killed in Pakistan this spring preventing for the T.T.P.

“Now the younger era are solely fascinated with doing jihad,” Mr. Sardar added.

Like many boys of their village, Mr. Wahdat and Mr. Malang joined the Taliban as youngsters and disappeared into mountainside hide-outs from the place they staged hit-and-run assaults on Western and Afghan authorities forces. They celebrated every profitable operation towards the so-called infidels. They lionized their buddies who died as martyrs.

However when the Taliban seized energy in 2021, Mr. Wahdat and Mr. Malang have been reassigned to police items in Kabul, the place they spent their days sitting round their outpost, stressed to go to the mountains.

When 5 of their buddies went to Pakistan this spring to return to jihad, each males brimmed with jealousy. Pulling out his telephone, Mr. Malang opened a video displaying a gaggle of males strolling throughout the border, scarfs wrapped tightly round their heads to guard them from the mud.

“We’ve buddies there who even carried out suicide assaults,” Mr. Wahdat stated, watching his buddy’s telephone. Each males say they may go to Pakistan within the coming months to hitch the T.T.P.

Pakistan officers have implored the Taliban to crack down on border crossings. On Sunday, Pakistan’s military chief, Gen. Syed Asim Munir, implied that his nation would use drive if Afghanistan did not act, citing issues over “sanctuaries” militants had on Afghan soil. Pakistan, he stated, “will spare no effort to dismantle terrorist networks and defend its residents in any respect prices.”

In response, Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban administration spokesman, denied these accusations and stated that “the territory of Afghanistan won’t be used towards the safety of any nation.”

The Taliban’s appearing minister of protection, Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoub, additionally warned former Talib fighters towards launching assaults exterior of Afghanistan in a speech.

Nonetheless, it’s unclear if or how the federal government will implement that mandate — and whether or not it is going to deter younger Talibs from leaving the nation to combat.

The enlistments have already helped invigorated the T.T.P., an ally of the Taliban motion in Afghanistan that seeks to expel the Pakistan authorities from the nation’s border areas.

The group was all however stamped out practically a decade in the past. However over the previous two years, it has roared again to life. Lots of of T.T.P. fighters have been free of Afghan prisons in the course of the Taliban takeover and armed themselves with American navy gear as soon as supplied to the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities, in accordance with Pakistani authorities and movies revealed by the T.T.P.

In current months, the T.T.P. has additionally begun systematically recruiting Taliban troopers in Afghanistan, in accordance with Taliban members and safety analysts. Now, anybody fascinated with becoming a member of its ranks is instructed to hyperlink up with different recruits and T.T.P. fighters in jap Afghanistan who know how one can cross the border illegally.

In Kabul, Mr. Wahdat and Mr. Malang expressed a way of responsibility unfilled after coming of fight age simply because the struggle they skilled for got here to an finish.

Now, they stated, they have been decided to not let their desires of martyrdom move them by. “In all places that Muslims are in hassle we should assist them,” Mr. Malang stated. “Like Palestine and Myanmar.”

Mr. Wahdat added: “Even America.”

Zia ur-Rehman contributed reporting.