The most violent wing of the Taliban receives training from China at Bagram Air Base, some reports claim.
by Massimo Introvigne
There are two things we know about the elusive Haqqani Network, an Afghan militia that takes its name from the Haqqani Pashtun family from Southeastern Afghanistan. First, after it fought valiantly against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Network operated mostly through terrorist attacks against Western interests and religious minorities in the country. It was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in 2012. Scholars of terrorism have emphasized its close ties with Al Qaeda.
Second, while jealous of its clan-based independence, the Network struck a deal with the Taliban and cooperated with them. It was rewarded after the Taliban victory by being incorporated into the national security forces and put in charge of the security of Kabul. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Network, became the new acting Interior Minister in the Taliban government.
A third and more hypothetical piece of information about the Haqqani Network is generating considerable controversy in Afghanistan and beyond. On March 12, AND magazine reported that Chinese military was training Haqqani Network fighters at Bagram Air Base, in Parwan Province, formerly the largest American air base in Afghanistan. On March 13, AND added that Pakistan and Iran were also cooperating in the project. AND Magazine news should be taken with a grain of salt. Its editor, Sam Faddis, is a retired CIA agent turned Republican politician. He does have connections in the intelligence community, but he has also a penchant for right-wing conspiracy theories.
However, on May 4, having further investigated the matter, the “Salaam Times” decided to broadcast the news that “Chinese military trainers” were at Bagram and were “working with the Haqqani Network”—with a question mark. The “Salaam Times” is in a different league from AND. It is a government-sponsored publication specialized in Afghan news, published by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Central Command (USCENTCOM).
The Salaam Times quotes the AND report but it adds a tweet by Amrullah Saleh, former pre-Taliban Vice President of Afghanistan and head of the country’s intelligence, dated April 22, and claiming that “foreign troops” in Bagram “train the Haqani [sic] militias which is confirmed by multiple sources.”
Saleh did not name the Chinese, the Pakistanis, and the Iranians, but the Salaam Times believes that his statement “support the claims” published by AND, and quotes a number of specialists of Afghanistan who regard the story as believable.
The jury is still out, but it is a fact that China is courting the Taliban regime in multiple ways and Pakistan has a long history of ambiguity in its relations with the Haqqani Network. If China is really training the Haqqani Network militias, one of the possibilities is that it would try to unleash them against the Uyghur refugees in Afghanistan, which China claims are all “terrorists.”
