How serious is Pakistan of brokering peace between Afghanistan and Taliban

Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi who will visit Afghanistan on December 25 has a lot on his plate to discuss. However a key issue that would be discussed during his visit is the Taliban which is hurting Indian interests in Afghanistan.

Modi's visit to Afghanistan comes in the wake of the Pakistan brokered talks between Afghanistan and the Taliban being fixed for January. India is watching closely this development and officials say that the peace talks being brokered by Pakistan is very crucial.

India wants stability:

Modi will pitch for stability in Afghanistan which is extremely crucial for the region. The Taliban being headed by Mullah Mansoor has taken an aggressive stance against India. Mansoor had even ordered the bombing at the Indian mission in Herat a day ahead of Modi's swearing in as Prime Minister and this was meant to send a strong message to India.

Officials who will accompany Modi to Kabul tell OneIndia that India will make a strong pitch for stability. There is a desperate need to counter the Taliban and even Afghanistan realises the importance of the same. The peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghanistan government broke off in July 2015 and since there has been chaos in the region.

India will help Afghanistan aspects pertaining to intelligence sharing. India will also provide Afghanistan will technical equipment to enhance intelligence gathering capabilities.

What will Pakistan do?

While India is confident of strengthening ties with Afghanistan, there lies a problem where Pakistan is concerned. Both the United States of America and China have been pushing Pakistan to broker peace between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

While India says that this is a welcome move, they would also watch closely how the ISI deals with the Taliban. The ISI has repeatedly helped the Taliban and in recent times even sent cadres of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba into Afghanistan. The lashkar is a known Indian enemy.

Pakistan's army chief General Raheel Sharif is expected to visit Afghanistan this week and push for the restarting of talks which had broken off in July. During the visit he would insist that the talks be held in Pakistan with a representative of the Taliban, Afghanistan government, US and China.