ISLAMABAD - Former Interior Minister and Chairman Institute of Research and Reforms Rehman Malik has said that he hopes Mullah Baradar will hand over Maulvi Faqir Mohammed TTP Emir Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, Ikram Ullah- Ikramullah, the surviving suicide bomber allegedly involved in assassination of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and other TTP leaders to Pakistan. 

He said that Pakistan had refused to hand over Mullah Baradar to Afghan government when they sought his extradition in former President Burhanuddin Rabbani murder case since no sustentative evidence was found against him.

In a statement, he said that the current fall of Kabul reminds him of his visit to Afghanistan in March 2012, when he delivered President Zardari’ special letter of goodwill to President Hamid Karzai and a full support was extended to him. Malik said that the wheel of time started turning and influence of India crept in while increasing its strong foothold on the ground of Kabul.

He said that around the same time, Pakistan had detained Mullah Baradar and there were direct pressing personal requests from Kabul to hand him over to Afghan authorities. The same was requested by Afghan Interior Minister Hanif Atmar during his visit to Pakistan, he added.

He said “we had to decline all the requests as we were not getting any cooperation from Afghanistan as in the meantime, the terrorist activities in Balochistan had increased from the Afghan soil by manifolds and Afghan government was not cooperating with Pakistan”.

Kabul wanted Mullah Baradar to be deported in order to try him in alleged murder case

Rehman Malik said that Pakistan had received credible intelligence with solid evidences that India was not only training the Baloch Youth Militants but also launching terrorist attacks in Baluchistan. To raise the matter with Afghan authorities, Prime Minister Gilani, I and Gen Zaheer Ul Islam, the DG ISI paid one day visit to Kabul wherein we met President Karzai and informed him about the 5 Indian terrorists training camps duly supported by Afghan NDS. As expected, President Karzai denied the accusation in his usual smiling and cool way, but when I presented all the audio and visual proofs then it became quite difficult for him to out rightly reject it, he added. 

He said that President Kazrai finally stated that it was not in his hands, hence, we were either supposed to talk to the Americans or we hand over Mullah Baradar to them and they will talk to the Americans on our behalf. He said that basically he wanted to make a Quid Pro Quo deal with them, that, “We give them Mullah Ghani Baradar and then they will recommend us to the Americans to decamp terrorist centers.”

Rehman Malik further said that in the meantime, Chairman Afghanistan’s High Peace Council Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated and Kabul alleged that the attack was carried out by Mullah Baradar. He said that he deputed a competent team to confront and investigate Mullah Baradar on the basis of the intelligence shared by NDS but no substantive evidence was found against him. Kabul wanted Mullah Baradar to be deported in order to try him in alleged murder case, he added.

He said that eventually, Pakistan allowed 20 investigators from Kabul to come and interact with Mullah Baradar and interrogate him on said murder incident in presence of Pakistani investigators but he was proven to be innocent hence Pakistan declined to hand him over to Kabul. 

“We endorsed all the reports showing the innocence of Mullah Baradar. The combination of Siraj Haqqani and Mullah Baradar has been a lethal one,” he said.

Rehman Malik said that Pakistan had been doing lot of work to bring peace in Afghanistan but the then Afghan Government and Indian RAW kept on sabotaging the peace process. He said that the peace in Afghanistan does not suit Indian interests, hence it keeps making efforts to ruin it. He said that crucial peace negotiations that initiated by USA through Zalmay Khalilzad entered into final phase lately when USA requested to involve Mullah Baradar to lead the talks.

He said “I was overwhelmed when I saw the video of Anis Haqqani entering the palace also the Taliban leaders in the same drawing room where, once, President Karzai was sitting and pressing us hard to hand over Mullah Baradar.” He said after 20 years, Taliban are back in Kabul with bang as the US fled the scenes just like they made their exit from Vietnam. He said that the withdrawal of USA with no exit strategy provided the space to Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Baradar and let us see now, how women and minorities get their due protection.