Indian newspaper, Hindustan Times has written that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is an 'active card' for India in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In a piece in the newspaper, TTP is also being called as Indian 'counterpart for Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkr-e-Taiba (LeT), and Jesh-e-Mohammad (JeM)'.

According to a senior Indian analyst, Bharat Karnad , India will be in a fix after United States The US secretary of defence, retired Lieutenant General James Mattis' request to India to moderate its support for TTP because TTP is useful as an Indian counterpart of the Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammad deployed by the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Jammu & Kashmir.

Severing relations with TTP will mean India surrendering an active card in Pakistan and a role in Afghanistan as TTP additionally provides access to certain Afghan Taliban factions. This, together with the Abdul Ghani regime’s desire for India’s presence and the tested friendship with Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Tajik-dominated ‘Northern Alliance’, ensures that no solution for peace in Afghanistan can be cobbled together without India’s help. 

Mattis will reach India on official visit tomorrow. 

The newspaper further wrote on the other issue that as a former head of the US Central Command Mattis appreciates Pakistan’s indispensability as base for military operations to bring the Taliban in Afghanistan to their knees. But Islamabad has insisted that India’s role in Afghanistan be restricted and complained about the Indian support for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) accused by Islamabad of terrorism in Pakistan. The RAW-TTP link was publicly revealed in April this year by its former commander, Ehsanullah Ehsan.