As the US-led Nato troops’ war against the Afghan Taliban intensified last year, increasing casualties of the US troops more than twice than killed during the year 2008, the efforts to wean away a sizeable number of the Taliban fighters and thus weaken their resistance to the Nato-led campaign seems to have intensified.
In a move that is being called ‘the first step’ towards bringing the Taliban insurgents into a political settlement of the conflict, an international conference was held in London (UK) on January 28, 2010.  Speaking at the 60-nation conference, Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the Afghan insurgents to sever ties with al-Qaeda, renounce violence and rejoin the political process. He also called upon Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to support the peace efforts in Afghanistan.
The Afghan peace efforts aim at reconciling with those Taliban insurgents who denounce violence and are willing to abide by the Afghan constitution. Offering jobs and vocational training to such militants, the peace plan proposes to integrate the Taliban, who renounce violence, into the mainstream of the society. This plan, according to Afghan Foreign Minister, Rangin Dafdar Spanta tops President Karzai’s political agenda for the remaining period of his five-year term.
The Afghan authorities plan to woo about 25,000 to 35,000 Taliban through their latest offer. Earlier, Pakistan had also prepared a similar plan for the reintegration of Taliban, who lay down arms and surrender, into the mainstream of the society, but the West did not support it at that time.
After return to Kabul, President Karzai has asked the Taliban fighters to drop their demand that US and Nato forces withdraw from Afghanistan before peace talks could be held, saying talks would make it easier for the troops to leave. He told a news conference in Kabul, on January 31, “The international community is here for success in defeat of terrorism, success in the defeat of extremism. Therefore, they have to be satisfied that they have achieved their objective before they can leave.”
Maintaining that he wants to move quickly, Karzai disclosed that would summon a Jirga in less than six weeks, before another international conference that he intended to host, in Kabul, in the next few months. He said, he would soon travel to Saudi Arabia, which has offered to help facilitate talks with the Taliban provided the militants stop giving sanctuary to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.  
Meanwhile to break a stalemate in the war, Washington is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, hoping that this step, combined with efforts to woo the “good” Taliban, would weaken the insurgency, allowing the US to start pulling out troops in 2011.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown opened the one-day conference by saying they would endorse plans for Afghanistan to increase its military to 171,600 by October 2011, and boost police numbers to 134,000 by the same date. He said: “By the middle of next year, we have to turn the tide in the fight against the insurgency.”
While supporting Karzai’s plan to reintegrate the Taliban into the mainstream, the London conference endorsed a timetable for handing over security duties in Afghan provinces starting late 2010 or early 2011. In the final communiqué, the conference also pledged funds for the plan without offering specific figures. Meanwhile, the “US military,” according to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “has been authorised to use substantial funds to support the effort.”   
The West has been impelled to mount peace efforts in Afghanistan because public support in the US, UK and other nations in the Nato-led campaign in Afghanistan is waning as casualties among foreign troops and also the Afghan civilians are rising.
No matter what package the world comes up for the Afghan Taliban, it will have little chance of succeeding unless Pakistan’s concerns are addressed to Islamabad’s entire satisfaction. The issue of Indian consulates in Afghanistan involved in activities incompatible with their diplomatic status and the Indian funding for anti-Pakistan insurgents figure high amongst Pakistan’s concerns.
A report by the US security and intelligence information group ‘Global Security,’ revealed that throughout Afghan war, Indian RAW was responsible for planning and execution of terrorists’ activities in Pakistan to deter Pakistan from support of Afghan liberation movement against India’s ally, Soviet Union. The assistance provided to RAW by KGB enabled RAW to arrange terrorist attacks in Pakistani cities throughout the Afghan war of liberation from the Soviet occupation.  According to Global Security, Soviet defeat in Afghanistan did not end Raw’s role in Pakistan.
Pakistan has; no doubt, legitimate concerns about India’s involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Balochistan province and FATA. After visiting Indian mission in Zahedan, an American expert, Christine Fair revealed, last year, that Indian officials told him privately that they were pumping money into Balochistan.
In brief, there exists strong evidence to show that for the last couple of years, Pakistan’s enemies are using Afghanistan to fuel terrorism and militancy in Pakistan. During Bajaur operations, Pakistan soldiers were stunned at one point to see close to 600 armed terrorists come into Pakistani territory from Afghanistan, fight Pakistani military troops and then escape across the Pak-Afghan international border. Knowledgeable circles attribute increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan to increase in RAW’s influence in Afghanistan.
India had been trying to retain its influence in Afghanistan to deter “anti-India militant training camps there,” which New Delhi accuses Pakistan of backing, and also try and counter a militant Islamic surge threatening regional security. While accepting the reality of the new plan, India’s foreign minister S.M. Krishna made clear the Indian discomfort with the group, saying the fundamental assessment of the Taliban remained unchanged. We consider them to be terrorists, who have close links with the al-Qaida and other terrorists groups, he told daily the “Times of India” in an interview. We are next door and our experiences make it difficult for us to differentiate between good or bad Taliban, Krishna said.  
Obviously, for Pakistan, India’s influence in Afghanistan is a clear threat and Islamabad has openly stated that India should be excluded from any regional effort towards Afghanistan, arguing that it is not an “immediate neighbour.” But, India counters this argument, maintaining that it is very much a part of the regional framework for Afghanistan, being in its “immediate neighbourhood.” In fact, India was opposed to the very idea of the reintegration of Taliban, as it saw the coming back of Islamists in power and rise in Pushtun representation in Afghanistan as a direct threat to its influence and also to that of its allies in the Northern Alliance.  
As a front-line state in the global community’s anti-terror war, Pakistan’s role is very crucial for advancing the goal of a stable and secure Afghanistan. Knowledgeable circles believe that if Pakistan were to buckle down in the face of terrorism, regional and world peace would be shattered adversely affecting the region as well as the western world.
However, Pakistan is paying very dearly for its steadfastness in the fight against terrorism.  Terrorist attacks have badly affected Pakistan’s economic and social infrastructure, particularly in education, health, agriculture and communication sectors in Swat, Malakand and North Waziristan agency.
Delivering a talk at the Oxford University on December 30, 2010, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said, the anti-terror war has wrecked Pakistan’s internal stability. Pakistan has rendered a lot more sacrifices than the international forces in Afghanistan and the West must reciprocate by helping to revitalise its economy and enhancing its capacity to counter terrorism. Speaking about successful operations in Swat, Malakand and South Waziristan, Qureshi said, an area one-third of the size of England has been cleansed of the miscreants and over two million internally displaced persons have returned to their homes, in  a matter of 10 weeks, and have started rebuilding their lives.
“All the coalition forces put together in Afghanistan have not had as many casualties as we had. The economic cost of this conflict to Pakistan has been over $35 billion. Through our national efforts, we are taking on the extremists.” The London conference, Qureshi, added, has realised Pakistan’s point of view that money derived from drugs smuggling and opium cultivation in Afghanistan is fanning and helping terrorism and that not enough attention has been made to choke the flow of illicit weapons.  
In addition, the war on terror has adversely affected the country’s exports and inflow of foreign direct investments. Between 2003 and 2009, fatalities in terrorist violence in the country stood at 22,110, including over 7,000 civilians and 2,637 security personnel.
Meanwhile, in the backdrop of London conference, Tehrik-e-Insaf Chairman, Imran Khan has reiterated his demand for stopping the ongoing campaign in Waziristan and elsewhere to hold dialogue with the Taliban militants, saying there was a need to isolate those who were not prepared for talks and only believed in violence. He said: Those who were hell-bent on violence were a few hundred; the rest could be convinced to review their approach.
The success of the global community’s efforts to eliminate militancy in Afghanistan would depend upon removing the concerns of Saudi Arabia regarding sanctuary to Osama bin Laden and Pakistan’s regarding India’s involvement in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s Balochistan province and FATA.