Afia Ambreen
Once again Afghan forces attack inside Pakistan resulting in the death of several civilians and a couple of security personnel, the incident near Chaman along the Pak-Afghan border is a grim reminder of the toll on ordinary civilians of tense relations between the two states. Pakistan had closed the border on Friday after attacks by Afghan forces on census staff and security personnel escorting them left 12 people dead and 40 others injured. A second flag meeting between Pakistani and Afghan military commanders, held at the Friendship Gate, remained inconclusive. Earlier, a meeting held on Friday evening had also ended without any decision. There was no reason at all for Pakistani census teams accompanied by security personnel in border villages to come under attack. Neither the enumerators nor the security personnel posed any kind of cross-border threat. The situation on the Afghan border remained calm on Saturday but the security forces on both sides remained alert and there was no traffic between Chaman and Kandahar for the second day. The army said it had killed more than 50 Afghan soldiers in a clash on the Chaman border crossing two days ago. The skirmish took place at the Chaman border that divides the Balochistan province and Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar, as officials were carrying out a census in the area. “We are not pleased to tell you that five Afghan check posts were completely destroyed — more than 50 of their soldiers were killed and over 100 were wounded,” Major General Nadeem Ahmed, head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), told reporters in Chaman.
Pakistan deployed more army and FC troops on the border. On the other hand, the Afghan government withdrew police from the border area and deployed army personnel. The authorities concerned asked the people living in the villages close to the border to shift to safe places. Majority of the villagers have already left their homes. The authorities have restricted the movement of people in the areas till the situation normalises. There is no movement of people and vehicles in the border areas. It is important to mention that India is behind acts of terrorism in Pakistan by playing proxy on Afghan soil. In the aftermath of the attack, with the Afghan side conceding that it had made a mistake, Kabul must act to repair an increasingly fractious bilateral relationship. With President Ashraf Ghani refusing to visit the country and all manner of Afghan officials routinely attacking Pakistan, it is inevitable that the climate of hostility will permeate the lower tiers of a security force that is young and prone to indiscipline. The message from the very apex of the Afghan leadership is itself the problem; if the country`s leaders routinely allege that Pakistan is at war with Afghanistan, will not even lightly armed Pakistani security personnel on a peaceful mission in the border region be regarded as legitimate targets?
As Afghanistan has become a chess board of the great game and literally sandwiched between different strategic perspectives, India has also been exploiting the situation to further her strategic ambitions through foul scheming. After a very brief pause during Taliban rule in late 90s, the Indians renewed their sinister activities against Pakistan and managed to operate from Afghanistan with four consulates located in Herat, Kandhar Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif and one embassy in Kabul during MrKarazai’s period. Through these consulates, Indian intelligence agencies have been operating many Pakistan specific training camps for TTP as well BLA terrorists who carry out their nefarious activities indiscriminately by targeting assigned soft and military targets in Pakistan. India has always attempted to keep Afghanistan unstable, weak and dependent to exploit its soil for encircling Pakistan, checking the progress of the People Republic of China (PRC) and create ingress in the markets of Central Asia.
Undeniably, India through her pet proxies is also engaged in expanding the mistrust and unpleasant situation between both neighbors to use it for her own advantage. India also attempted to patronize ISIS in Afghanistan to counter weight the Taliban etc by flocking different disenchanted Taliban groups to join the group. As the Afghan Taliban were inclined for peace talks with Afghan government under joint auspices of USA, China, Pakistan etc, a series of synchronized terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan were deliberately unleashed through NDS-RAW nexus supported proxies to disrupt the process, blame Afghan Taliban and simultaneously malign Pakistan for supporting them. Though there is growing dislike for the ISIS in the international environment, India however, continues to exploit the groups affiliated with ISIS to create terror in both neighbouring Muslim countries. Undoubtedly, the beneficiaries of an unstable Afghanistan are those forces, which desire to expand their strategic ditches to legitimize their presence and relevance in the regional environment and continue to encircle China and wage proxy wars against Pakistan. Pakistan remains committed to peace process in Afghanistan. Af-Pak peace is essential for regional stability. Since the major beneficiary of instability in Af-Pak region is India, therefore, it is employing its assets in China, Afghanistan and Pakistan to create instability. Pakistan has categorically denounced any proximity with Taliban as propagated by Indian and western segments. The impression of proximity has been exploited to fan mistrust between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan is facilitating Afghan led peace process with seriousness to see peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan in the neighbourhood.
