Afghan cadets arrive for first training in Pakistan

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/06/afghan-cadets-pakistan-training

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The Afghan government has sent some of its soldiers to be trained in Pakistan for the first time as part of an attempt to secure vital regional help to end the decade-long Taliban insurgency.

Overcoming years of distrust, six Afghan cadets arrived on Thursday night to begin 18 months of training at the elite officer academy in Abbottabad.

The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, is determined to improve relations between the two countries. His predecessor Hamid Karzai persistently refused offers of military assistance from Pakistan, which many in Kabul believe secretly supports the Taliban.

Afghan officials in the past have expressed fears that soldiers sent to Pakistan could be recruited as spies or that their careers would be stunted by the deep hostility that Afghans harbour towards Pakistan.

Janan Mosazai, the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad, urged the cadets to befriend their Pakistani counterparts at the training academy. He said the scheme was an “important step in both countries’ efforts to strengthen, broaden and deepen security and particularly military-to-military cooperation”.

Rifaat Hussain, a defence expert, said the Pakistani military had long wanted to train Afghan soldiers to provide a counter-balance to training offered by the arch-enemy India. “The Pakistani military offered training facilities for as long as Karzai was there,” he said. “This is a step in the right direction because it will help remove doubts Pakistan had about the pro-India orientation of the Afghan forces.”

Ghani has won plaudits for a well-received visit to Islamabad and for announcing that Afghanistan would not pursue an offer of weapons from India.

Soldiers and police have been diverted to Afghanistan’s eastern provinces to fight militant enemies of Pakistan who launch attacks from Afghan territory. And Pakistani officials have been given access to interrogate militants captured in Afghanistan.

The Afghan government hopes the measures will help secure Pakistan’s support to curb the Taliban, whose leadership operate from Pakistani territory.

But so far Ghani has received little in return for his efforts to woo Pakistan, which are politically unpopular at home. Afghan officials complain that Taliban attacks have not subsided and that Pakistan has not taken steps to control Taliban groups on its territory, despite the launch of a military operation against militants in North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan.

“Time is running out, we need to see real action,” said one Afghan official, adding that Pakistan needed to facilitate a peace process with willing members of the Taliban and expel those uninterested in negotiating with Kabul. “We want Pakistan to either confront those who are not willing to engage in peace or, at the very least, ask them to pack up and leave.”