Pakistan’s crackdown on Afghan mullahs doubted

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (Pajhwok): The peace committee of northern Balkh province on Wednesday casted doubts over Pakistan’s crackdown on Afghan prayer leaders in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Baz Mohammad Gharibyar, the committee chief, told a press conference in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital, that Pakistan was responsible for the decades-long violence in Afghanistan. Students from religious schools in Pakistan traditionally entered Afghanistan to take part in the conflict, he alleged.

Gharibyar viewed as unusual the removal of 300 Afghan mullahs from mosques in Peshawar and across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and forcing them to return to Afghanistan.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police had been directed by the provincial government to remove Afghan imams from mosques in a week’s time.

The peace negotiator said the returning mullahs could threaten the peace process and contribute to insecurity in the country, casting doubts on Pakistan’s intention behind the move, saying Islamabad had not consulted Kabul over the issue.

Afghanistan Ulema Council member, Muhsen Danish, who was also present at the press conference, told Pajhwok Afghan News that “Pakistan has always played two-faced politics with Afghanistan.”

He said Pakistan was making efforts to bring the Afghan Taliban leaders to the negotiation table with Afghan officials on the hand and expelling Afghan clerics on the other, something contradicting each other.

He said Pakistan should deal with the problem in coordination and cooperation with Afghanistan, if the country was sincere in working for peace.

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