New Delhi: Located just opposite the Indian consulate section in Kabul, Urdu-speaking ‘Taliban’ have made the old building of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior in the capital their main base. As opposed to Taliban fighters who speak the Pashtu dialect, it is a team of Urdu-speaking men dressed as Taliban who are taking the lead in hunting for Indian links and connections, including in the ransacking of the sprawling building of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), a top source in the war-battered country has told ETV Bharat.
The NDS is the intelligence headquarters and the nerve center of Afghanistan’s security establishment. The NDS building comprising dozens of office blocks is located in a huge compound opposite the Chinese embassy in Kabul. Urdu being the national language of Pakistan has only confirmed that Pakistani agents in the guise of Taliban are leading raids and search operations in Kabul.
“On the first day after the fall of Kabul (August 16), the NDS Headquarter and the Data Analysis Center of the NDS which is the main intelligence information bank were broken into, searched and destroyed by unknown Taliban who conversed in Urdu. This team has taken over the NDS and has helped Pakistani agents get access to classified data,” the source, very closely familiar with intelligence and security operations of the country, said.
In hiding now, the source did not want to be identified for fear of retribution by the Taliban. “The normal Taliban are not interested in looking for documents and office papers, it's a small elite group connected to the Haqqani Network that looks and searches for information regarding links between NDS and RAW,” the source said.
RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) is India’s primary external intelligence agency. “Besides Indian connections, this team is also looking out for CIA employees, Baluch separatist fighters and those allied with Ahmad Masoud's resistance in Panjshir. They are also trying to identify and locate those Afghans who might have worked or helped the Indian intelligence services in the last 20 years.”
“Initially we thought they may be looking for some modern US weapons, but the broken shelves of the NDS data center suggest that thousands of documents and CDs have been taken away to Pakistan by planes,” the source added.
In a series of blitzkrieg-like offensives that began on May 1, the Taliban have swept across the provinces of the country with capital Kabul being overtaken on August 15.
Read: India's role as regional ally can have positive impact in Afghanistan: US official
