Afia Ambreen
Facing aggression on both Pak-Afghan border and the Line of Control (LoC), four Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred in two separate attacks in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s areas bordering Afghanistan and one in unprovoked firing along the LoC with India. The first attack took place in Upper Dir district near the border with Afghanistan, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement. Terrorists from across the border fired at soldiers fencing the porous frontier which resulted in the martyrdom of three troops. One soldier was also injured in the attack. In a separate incident in North Waziristan tribal district, terrorists opened fire on a patrol of security forces near Abba Khel in Spin Wam area. One soldier was martyred in the attack that took place on Friday night. The military said two of the attackers were killed in retaliatory firing.
Pakistan has summoned diplomats from Afghanistan and India after several shooting incidents along two different borders killed four Pakistani soldiers and a civilian woman. The latest incidents come at an especially tense time between Pakistan and India, and as talks between the United States and the Afghan Taliban have broken down. Pakistan’s Foreign Office summoned an Afghan diplomat to account for what it said was firing into Pakistan by militants in Afghanistan, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
FO spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal, who is also the South Asia and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SA & SAARC) director general, condemned the ceasefire violations that have surged since August 5 when the Modi government revoked the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed states. He urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 ceasefire arrangement, investigate incidents of ceasefire violations, instruct the Indian forces to respect the ceasefire in letter and spirit and maintain peace along the LoC and the Working Boundary. Dr Faisal also urged New Delhi to permit the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play its mandated role as per the UN Security Council resolutions.
Historically, the issue of legality, territorial claim and management of the Pak-Afghan border has been one of the bilateral irritants between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since Pakistan’s independence, with the exception of Nadir Shah and King Zahir Shah, both had begun to acknowledge the legality of the Durand Line as well as the present day Khyber Paktunkhwa (KPK) and Federally Administrated Tribal Area (FATA) as parts of Pakistan’s territory. However, successive Afghan governments including the Taliban have refused to accept legality of the Pak-Afghan border. Afghanistan has raised territorial claims over Pakistan’s territory i.e., present day KPK and has also challenged the legality of the Durand Line on the basis that these “contested areas” belonged to Afghanistan in the 18th century, through an agreement signed in 1893, between the Foreign Secretary of the British Indian government, Sir Mortimer Durand and the then ruler of Afghanistan, King Abdur Rehman Khan, which demarcated the 2,640 km (1,610 miles) border between British India and Afghanistan. Subsequently, after the creation of Pakistan, the disputed and contested areas by Afghanistan became legal parts of Pakistan’s territory, as it was a successor state to the British government in India. Pakistan being a legal successor state was entitled to enjoy full sovereignty over this area and has all the rights and obligations towards the people of this area.
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. However, Pakistan is facilitating Afghan led peace process with seriousness to see peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan in the neighborhood.
