Malik M. Ashraf<\/p>\n
The year 2024 has been the worst ever in regard to acts of terrorism in KPK and Balochistan and the number of casualties involved. Most of these attacks were launched against law enforcement agencies and security posts. During the year, 1,200 terrorist attacks occurred, resulting in the loss of 2,000 lives, including 383 personnel of the security establishment. According to the DG ISPR, security forces carried out 59,775 operations against the terrorists, killing 925 of them. These casualties were the highest in the last five years. Additionally, 75 high-value targets, including some of the most wanted terrorists, were eliminated during these operations.
\nThe terrorist attacks in both provinces have been carried out by the TTP and BLA, whose nexus is supported by RAW. However, the most fatal attack occurred on a security post on 21 December in South Waziristan, in which 16 soldiers embraced martyrdom. Since repeated interactions with the Afghan Taliban\u2014urging and appealing to them to stop TTP operatives from using Afghan soil for terrorist attacks against Pakistan\u2014failed to produce any positive results, the security establishment was compelled to carry out retaliatory strikes on the TTP hideouts in Paktia province of Afghanistan from where they operated against Pakistan. Reportedly, the airstrikes killed 71 Khawarji militants, including several key commanders. This is not the first time Pakistan has been forced to act decisively across the border. Previously, Pakistan targeted terrorist networks in Afghanistan through drone strikes, inflicting heavy losses on them. At that time, the Afghan Taliban assured Pakistan that no further attacks on Pakistan would originate from Afghan soil.
\nThat promise was not kept by the Taliban government, as corroborated by the latest attack on the security check post in South Waziristan. However, this time, the Taliban government adopted a belligerent stance against Pakistan instead of keeping its promise. On the night of 28 December, Khawarji militants and Afghan troops launched attacks on our security posts and attempted to infiltrate Pakistani territory. In the ensuing fighting, 15 Khawarji and Taliban troops were killed.
\nMeanwhile, the Taliban Ministry of Defence, in a post on the social media platform X, stated that several points beyond the hypothetical line\u2014serving as centres and hideouts for malicious elements and their supporters who organised and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan\u2014were targeted in retaliation from the southeastern direction of the country.
\nThese developments have surely further exacerbated relations between the two countries, which were already tension-ridden since the installation of the interim Taliban government in Afghanistan. These are dangerous portents for peace and security in the region, fraught with serious repercussions for both countries.
\nThe Taliban government in Afghanistan is bound by the Doha Agreement not to allow any terrorist organisation to use its soil for attacks against any other country. Regrettably, it has not only failed to honour that agreement but has also breached repeated commitments made to Pakistan in this regard. Even interventions by China to convince the Taliban government of the desirability of keeping TTP operatives in check and mending relations with Pakistan have not produced the desired results.
\nPolitical and security analysts attribute the hostility of the Taliban government towards Pakistan to the dominant Indian influence in Afghanistan and the proven nexus between RAW, the TTP, the Afghan intelligence agency, and the BLA. The arrest of Indian naval officer Kalbhushan Jadhav in Balochistan and his confessions leave no doubt about this heinous conspiracy against Pakistan. The revelations made by Maulvi Mansoor, head of defence and financial affairs of the TTP, who was arrested in Balochistan in July this year, further corroborate the existence of that nexus. He unequivocally reiterated that the TTP was being funded by RAW, and its cooperation with the BLA to sabotage CPEC also came at RAW\u2019s behest. He also admitted that their actions enjoyed the blessings of the Afghan government and that many of the missing persons were roaming around in Afghanistan.
\nMy own hunch is that there is an international conspiracy to sabotage CPEC. The two most vociferous enemies of CPEC are India and the USA. Support for the TTP and BLA in their terrorist acts against Pakistan and fomenting tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are ploys being employed to consign the region to perennial instability to sabotage CPEC, which is likely to have a transformational impact on the economic profile of Pakistan and the entire region. This is not acceptable to either India or the USA, who are declared partners in the \u2018stop China\u2019 policy. Some analysts rightly suggest that the USA could also be part of this conspiracy, being implemented through its proxy, India.
\nPakistan and China both have an abiding commitment to helping Afghanistan rebuild its economy by making investments and creating conditions conducive to regional connectivity. The success of their efforts largely depends on an improvement in the security environment.
\nBut it is regrettable to note that, despite having so much at stake for Afghanistan and the regional countries, the Taliban government is not making serious efforts to stop terrorism emanating from its soil. For quite some time now, Pakistan has witnessed an upsurge in terrorist attacks against its security and law enforcement agencies by TTP operatives based in Afghanistan.
\nPakistan is the country that supported the Taliban in their fight against the Northern Alliance and extended recognition to their government\u2014along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE\u2014when they became rulers of Afghanistan in 1996, while the entire world refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of their rule. It was Pakistan that, through bilateral and multilateral forums, supported an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned solution to the war in Afghanistan after the US invasion in the wake of 9\/11, and also played a pivotal role in the deal between the Taliban and the US for the exit of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan. Pakistan has hosted more than three million Afghan refugees since 1979 and has even tolerated the presence of illegal Afghans on its soil for a long time. Supporting or abetting terrorist attacks against Pakistan by the Afghan Taliban is simply an act of ungratefulness.
\nPakistan and Afghanistan are brotherly Muslim countries as well as neighbours. This geographical reality cannot be changed, and it necessitates cordial relations between the two. Therefore, the Taliban government, instead of acting under India\u2019s influence to sabotage CPEC, must understand that it is actually jeopardising its own economic revival, which this mega project promises to usher in, besides transforming the economic profile of the entire region. Afghanistan has already endured more than four decades of instability and war, and the Taliban government owes it to its people to ensure a peaceful and prosperous life for them. Being part of a proxy war against Pakistan will not help their cause.<\/p>\n
The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at ashpak10@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malik M. Ashraf The year 2024 has been the worst ever in regard to acts of terrorism in KPK and Balochistan and the number of casualties involved. Most of these attacks were launched against law enforcement agencies and security posts. During the year, 1,200 terrorist attacks occurred, resulting in the loss of 2,000 lives, including […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3489],"class_list":{"0":"post-453405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-malik-m-ashraf"},"yoast_head":"\n