After a string of attacks orchestrated from Afghan territory last week, Pakistan was forced to take cross-border actions against terror groups such as Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA). As pointed out by multiple sources, these groups had the complete backing of Afghan and Indian intelligence agencies, of which concrete evidence was available, and Pakistan was in no mood to further adopt a policy of restraint given the number of attacks recently. Hence, in collaboration with the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), the army carried out multiple bombing raids along the Pak-Afghan border, which is still sealed and shoot-on-sight orders are already in place for illegal entries.
\nFor the last couple of years, Pakistan had shown a policy of restraint and hoped that Kabul would take concrete action against the groups involved in terrorism and even handover their leaders such as Mullah Fazlullah. However, it turned out that the Afghan government had no control over its own spies who were plotting terrorist acts against Pakistan. This was also exposed by The New York Times in October 2013 when National Directorate of Security (NDS) officials were caught red-handed for meeting with Pakistani Taliban leaders by US forces in a Kabul compound.
\nWhile Pakistan Army handed over a list of 76 \u2018terrorists\u2019 to Afghan diplomats in a recent summoning, Kabul sent its own list of 85 \u2018terrorists\u2019 residing in Pakistan, as a tit for tat move. The diplomatic escalation only reduced when both countries mutually agreed to work together in reducing hostilities and containing terrorism. Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan, Dr Omar Zakhiwal, even shuttled to Kabul in normalising the relations. While this is indeed heartening to know but the fact remains that Kabul needs to purge its ranks of those hawkish individuals who are under Indian influence, which is jeopardising bilateral harmony and creating hurdles in the much-delayed Afghan Peace Process. Proxy warfare originating from Afghan soil is the single most key factor for causing instability across Pakistan. In a briefing to the senate, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar even went further by stating to conduct full raids inside Afghanistan for which the army is \u2018fully authorised\u2019. These actions could be conducted even if assistance is not provided by US officials in Kabul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a string of attacks orchestrated from Afghan territory last week, Pakistan was forced to take cross-border actions against terror groups such as Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA). As pointed out by multiple sources, these groups had the complete backing of Afghan and Indian intelligence agencies, of which concrete evidence was available, and Pakistan was in no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorial"},"yoast_head":"\n