Lieutenant Colonel Nasratullah Nasrat, the commanding officer of the 3rd Kandak (Battalion) of the 1st Brigade of the 203rd Afghan Army, meets with Captain Aaron Tapalman, commander of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry. Photo by Bill Ardolino/LWJ.
This reporter recently sat down to interview Lieutenant Colonel Nasratullah Nasrat, the commanding officer of the 3rd Kandak (Battalion) of the 1st Brigade of the 203rd Afghan Army. An ethnic Pashtun with 25 years of experience in the Afghan Army, Nasrat has spent his entire career stationed in Paktia and Khost provinces. Two things seemed especially notable about his answers: Nasrat's disbelief that the US will really withdraw by 2014, and his blunt assessment of Pakistan's role in the Afghan insurgency. It has been this reporter's repeated experience interviewing leaders of indigenous security forces that there is a strong cultural bias toward pinning responsibility for the violence on foreigners, while absolving locals of blame. But in the case of this interview, Nasrat's assessment of Pakistan's role in destabilizing Afghanistan actually mirrors assessments by multiple US officers and intelligence officials, with the difference that it is on the record.
LWJ: Describe who the enemy is; who are the people who are fighting your forces and American forces?
LTC Nasrat: They go by the name Talib, but we know they come from ISI (Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate).
LWJ: Can you elaborate? Why do you believe the insurgents are products of the ISI?
LTC Nasrat: Then where do they come from, the sky?
LWJ: But what specifically indicates the relationship? What clues do you have that ties the insurgents back to Pakistan?
LTC Nasrat: W
ell, historically, it's Pakistan's fight more than it is ours. They're the ones who have the resources, and we lack the resources coming from Pakistan's ISI. So where are the Afghan Taliban getting the resources from? The Taliban in Pakistan have been under pressure. They are pressured to come here and fight, and the ones that do come here, the majority are Pakistani.
LWJ: Explain to me what type of support you believe the ISI give to insurgents here.
LTC Nasrat: Qazi Hussein Ahmad and Maulana Fazlur Rahman, they are Pakistani Taliban [leaders], they work for the ISI. The ISI provides them with resources and of course money. And they're the ones who are fighting in the name of religion in the worst possible ways. And they're the ones who are looking for other people to provide them resources - whether it's weapons, money, anything - besides the resources they get from the ISI. They are the ones who hire poor people who need money, leading them to [attack Afghan and Coalition forces]. They just want to keep the war going in Afghanistan, they just don't want to let it go.
[Note: Nasrat clarified that the two individuals he named, as well as many of the individuals he refers to as "Taliban," are those associated with Hizb-i-Islami.This was likely a translation error related to "Islamic Party," however. The two men are associated with the organizations Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islami Fazlur Rahman (JUI-F), both of which use radical madrasas to recruit fighters for the Taliban, as well as maintain ties to the Pakistani security forces.]
LTC Nasrat: Those two men are the leaders, they are like Haqqani Network leaders, but they are not Haqqani. ISI gives those men money, and they distribute money to the insurgent organizations to keep the fight going in Afghanistan.
LWJ: And some of these organizations are local?
LTC Nasrat: They are in Pakistan. But everything comes from the top, which is ISI. They convince the people to fight in the name of Islam for the wrong reasons and have them fight here. Khost is only a popular focus because of the Haqqani Network.
LWJ: But it is my understanding that even though Haqqani is currently based in Miramshah in Pakistan, they are originally from Afghanistan, and they have many Afghan operatives.
LTC Nasrat: Yes, Haqqani is Afghan, but the other two I mentioned are from Pakistan.
LWJ: But aside from those two and the insurgent cells they fund, it is my understanding that Haqqani is fighting here too.
LTC Nasrat: Yes, and they are also linked with the ISI. Yes. And I've even heard he [Siraj Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani Network] has kind of a rank within the ISI as well, though it is a rumor.
LWJ: And when that day comes, when the Americans leave, do you believe you are equipped to handle the insurgents?
LTC Nasrat: Of course. My men are ready to fight if they are provided the right resources, like weapons.
LTC Nasrat: That's not going to happen as long as Pakistan is involved. As long as Pakistan is there, there will never be security, because they don't want that.
LWJ: So how do you personally deal with that, as a man who has fought for years?
LTC Nasrat: That's a very hard question, it would take me an entire day to answer it. We don't accept the border with Pakistan; parts of Pakistan belong to Afghanistan.
Read more:
'They come from ISI' - Afghan colonel on insurgent threat - The Long War Journal