Once Pakistan’s pawn in Afghanistan, Mullah Baradar is now cast in role of interlocutor | The Indian Express

Once Pakistan’s pawn in Afghanistan, Mullah Baradar is now cast in role of interlocutor | The Indian Express

Written by Khaled Ahmed |Updated: March 23, 2019 9:45:08 am

Khaled Ahmed was born in 1943 in Jallandhar during the siege of Stalingrad. He has been an opinion writer based in Pakistan for the past 40 years. Over his decades of experience, he has worked for <em>The Pakistan Times, The Nation, The Frontier Post, The Friday Times and The Daily Times, three of which have been closed down either permanently or temporarily. He is now consulting editor at Newsweek Pakistan, based in Lahore.</em> Ahmed graduated from Government College Lahore during the 1965 war with India with an MA (Honours) on the roll of honour, along with a diploma in German from Punjab University. In 1970, he received a diploma in Russian (Interpretation) from Moscow State University. In 2006, he wrote the book, Sectarian War: Sunni-Shia Conflict in Pakistan at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington DC.

Once Pakistan’s pawn in Afghanistan, Mullah Baradar is now cast in role of interlocutor

Mullah Baradar was a Taliban leader Pakistan was keeping under lock and key as its winning pawn in the unfolding Great Game in Afghanistan.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, and Deputy Commander of the Taliban Movement for Political Affairs, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (right) during a meeting.  (AP Photo/File)

On January 26, the Afghan Taliban and US officials in Doha, Qatar, agreed on a preliminary draft of a likely peace accord, including US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 18 months. If this is not a false beginning, it denotes the adoption of a “moderate” approach by the Taliban under their negotiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.