Afghanistan Times
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Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah hoped that the newly-sworn US President Donald Trump would continue supporting the Afghan people and government. The statement came after the new US president talked to his troops stationed in Bagram, Afghanistan.
Terrorism and extremism are biggest threats. Pakistan has supported the notorious groups for long. Therefore, the time is high that Trump should take notice of Islamabad’s support to the terrorist networks. The US shall hold Pakistan accountable for the double game. Islamabad played double game with Washington. On one hand the power military establishment of Pakistan claimed that it is a strong ally of the US but on the other hand it never missed any opportunity to stab the US in the back. It is evident from state-level support to the local, trans-regional and global terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, Taliban, Haqqani Network, Turkestan Islamic Party, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Hezbul Mujahideen and numerous others.
The US assistance provided to Islamabad was spent on growth of the terror outfits. The Obama administration knew about it but did nothing. Therefore, the militancy-hit nations are pinning hopes on the Trump-administration. They hope that the new US president would go after the terror networks in Pakistan to make the South and Central Asia a better place. These groups also pose threat to global security. Therefore, elimination of these notorious terrorists would make the world also a better place to live in.
If Trump followed on footsteps of Obama, the US cannot win the war on terror and American forces in Afghanistan would remain in crosshair of the terrorists.
To break backbone of these terrorist groups, the new administration in the US must deploy forces in Pakistan. Denial of Islamabad to allow the UN and US forces as observers would mean that Pakistan is not ready to dump its policy of using terrorists as a foreign policy tool.
Therefore, the next step of the US should be to impose sanctions on Pakistan. It will prove productive because Pakistan is not far from becoming a bankrupt country. Besides that Washington should also ask Islamabad to allow human rights organizations and international journalists to visit Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces because Pakistani military is committing human rights violations. Activists are abducted by state agencies. Those who want to raise their voice as free men and women are tortured and killed. The US, claiming to be the human rights champion, cannot turn blind eye to the gross human rights violations in Pakistan.
Furthermore, Trump should explore all possible ways to take nukes from Pakistan because nuclear weapons in the hands of warmongering military could break nuclear war in the region. Pakistan has also provided nuclear technology to North Korea which is threatening the global peace. Therefore, Pakistan without nuclear weapons is in the interest of all the nations living on this planet.
