It had been scheduled that on the 25th and 26th of last August, through the efforts of Fawzia Koofi and some other exiled Afghans, and with the involvement of certain Pakistani intelligence circles, a meeting would be held in Islamabad. However, this meeting was apparently postponed just a few days before it was to take place, but in reality, it was canceled due to some undisclosed factors.
The Voice of Hindukush, through its informed sources, has obtained significant and sensitive information regarding the planned meeting. Although the main organizers attempted to conceal the reasons for the postponement and attribute it to technical issues, credible information obtained by the Voice of Hindukush indicates that the Jamiat Party’s breakaway faction; led by Atta Mohammad Noor and Yunus Qanuni; along with Jamiat itself and the Resistance Front, strongly opposed the holding of the meeting. They firmly instructed all their members and sympathizers not to participate under any circumstances. Although some prominent exiled figures supported the meeting and considered participation important, due to the strong opposition of the leaders and senior members of Jamiat’s breakaway faction and the Resistance Front, they were unable to travel to Islamabad for the meeting or prevent its cancellation.
The Voice of Hindukush has also found documents indicating that a secret coordination was established between Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, and Yunus Qanuni to portray the meeting negatively in the media and within the Resistance Council and other opposing groups. They aimed to provoke opposition and label the meeting as insignificant and fruitless. On this basis, Yunus Qanuni, along with some other figures associated with Jamiat and the so-called Resistance Front, carried out broad propaganda campaigns in gatherings, meetings, and private discussions to oppose the meeting and discourage participation. Zalmay Khalilzad, too, from his official platform, joined them in this coordinated negative publicity.
This compelled Islamabad and the Pakistani intelligence circles behind the initiative to issue a statement declaring the postponement of the meeting, citing disputes among the invited participants. Although in the past four years, conflicts over power, personal interests, and old rivalries had already led to both verbal and physical clashes among the Afghan government’s opponents; further deepening divisions; the disagreements over the Islamabad meeting further intensified these rifts and split the opposition into multiple factions.
These opposing groups, which in the past had also held secret meetings with delegations from Pakistan’s intelligence agency “ISI” in Turkey and other countries, continue to hope for political and military support from Pakistan and seek to wage a proxy war in Afghanistan on its behalf. Yet, whenever such support has been extended, it has instead fueled divisions, deepened disputes, and driven Afghan opposition groups against one another.