An American drone attack on a house in Kurrum Agency killed at least three suspected militants and injured another on Friday, which is the first one since President Donald Trump unveiled his strategy for Afghanistan and South Asia about a month ago. The house belonged to a local religious cleric, Maulvi Mohib, who was killed along with two others. According to ISPR,” a tripartite meeting between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US was held at the Ministry of Defence in Kabul, where participants reaffirmed their resolve to continue fight against the common threat of terrorism and expressed their commitment to eliminate Daesh from the region, which can best be achieved through information sharing, complementary efforts and enhanced cooperation.” However, instead of sharing information, the US resorted to drone attack, which was against the spirit of the tripartite meeting and resolve expressed in that meeting.
To prove link between Pakistan and Haqqani network, the US said that militants killed in the attack belonged to Haqqani network. According to the residents, Maulvi Mohib was not a prominent figure, though he was known as supporter of the Taliban. Anyhow, this was the first attack after US President Donald Trump unveiled his policy for Afghanistan and South Asia. Unfortunately, President Trump did not pay any heed to the advice of the right-thinking Congressmen who believed that the US needed Pakistan to ensure peace in Afghanistan. In first week of July 2017, a U.S. congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain had visited Pakistan. Members of the delegation included fellow senators Lindsey Graham, Elizabeth Warren, David Perdue and Sheldon Whitehouse, who were flown by Pakistan military to South Waziristan to see for themselves the situation in the area.
They had called on both Islamabad and Washington to continue working closely to combat regional terrorism and to promote peace and stability in Afghanistan. The visit had come a month before the Trump administration was to unveil a new Afghan strategy. The visiting U.S. lawmakers were all praise for Pakistan and admitted that Pakistani troops made progress in dismantling terrorist infrastructure and restoring peace to South Waziristan. “My colleagues from the United States Senate and I have had a very informative and important visit, understating the challenges, the successes and remaining challenges that require close coordination and assistance from us and with us,” Senator McCain said. But President Trump takes decisions on the basis of his visceral instincts rather than cerebral clarity or sincere advice of the experienced congressmen. Secondly, Afghan government is under the influence of India, and their intelligence agencies who wish to spoil relations between Pakistan and the US.
Apart from that, US public opinion makers in Afghanistan have committed one of the gravest mistakes by printing a leaflet having Taliban Flag containing Holy verse (Kalma-a-Tayyaba) written on it on to the side of a dog being chased by a lion. In the image dog reflects Taliban and the lion represents US-NATO forces. These leaflets were dropped in the Parwan province of Afghanistan on September 5. Locals have expressed anger and fury over the contents of the leaflet declaring it as blasphemous. Even the Afghan administration’s Governor of Parwan declared the act as “unforgivable mistake by the US.” Afghans rely less on TV and Newspapers, so dropping propaganda leaflets is a regular part of military psychological operations. In the past US-led forces in Afghanistan were involved in provocative acts.
Afghans have been protesting against such provocations in the past as well. In 2012, Copies of burnt Quran were also found by an Afghan sanitary worker in Bagram air base sometime luck. Resultant protests throughout Afghanistan caused numerous deaths and injuries. Once again in 2012, images of US marines urinating on the killed Taliban bodies had hurt the feelings of Afghans and human rights bodies across the world. Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai was especially critical of US night raids on Afghan homes, which demonstrated disrespect to Afghan culture and families. Such provocations can only fuel the sentiment against occupation forces by huge section of Afghan society. President Trump needs to think an out of the box solution where a regional approach is given priority. Grave mistakes like that of September 5, 2017 may not bring the desired results.
