Afghanistan Times
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Unfortunately, the two neighboring countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, from the very outset created a lot of deep-seated hostility. This hostility was rooted in Afghanistan’s anger towards the then British-India as it has usurped much of Afghanistan’s land and people—the current day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and parts of Balochistan. After the first decade of Pakistan’s creation, Afghanistan gradually started scaling back its hostility but as the former started its ambassadorial relations with the Muslim world and also joined the United States sponsored alliances, it started scaling the hostility up. And the result is a destroyed Afghanistan. This troubled country lost peace because of Pakistan’s interferences. Today, there is a constant and an ongoing attack by Pakistan where Afghanistan is not only a victim but being maligned as well. A floundering Afghanistan has been pushed into signing a highly controversial intelligence sharing deal. On top of that in the presence of NDS-ISI deal, Pakistan’s military resumed cross-Durand Line attacks. The Ministry of Interior said that Pakistan’s military fired 16 rockets into south-eastern Paktika on Sunday night. No causalities were reported. Cross-Durand Line attacks were quite rampant during the government of ex-President Hamid Karzai as Pakistan wanted to destabilize his government. Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf’s interview to the Guardian (a leading British newspaper) is a historical confession where he said that his government supported the Taliban to destabilize Karzai’s government for being pro-India. But why Pakistan is hell-bent on destabilizing President Ashraf Ghani’s government, which is friendlier with Pakistan? Though Pakistan has ceased firing rockets into Nangarhar and Kunar provinces during Ghani’s government, but 16 rockets were fired into Paktika province. If Pakistan continues firing rockets into Afghanistan, what does the NDS-ISI deal hold for Kabul? Why Kabul must rely on Islamabad for peace talks? The problem is Pakistan’s security officials have long denied the attacks and occasionally claimed they were in retaliation to attacks by militants coming from Afghanistan. Pakistan’s hysterical spree of shelling rockets into Afghanistan’s volatile east had continued undeterred, spawning mayhem, with residents living under constant fear of death during Hamid Karzai’s government, and the reason was quite obvious—the nationalist standpoint of Karzai’s administration on the Durand Line, but what the new administration will do given that Pakistan’s rocket attacks catch length?
Afghanistan’s treacherous neighbor has hatched a new game of ‘annihilation and rampage’. This very strategy and game—which is two-pronged in nature is too deadliest as on one side Pakistan has been exporting terrorism to Afghan territory while in a so-called hot pursuit of militants its security forces have been raining shells on eastern provinces of Afghanistan to build pressure on Kabul and make it kneeled. Kunar was the worst ever victim of Pakistan’s rocket attacks but is it the number of Paktika? Pakistan’s deliberate attacks have inflicted heavy losses upon the residents of the troubled provinces. The problem is the government has not taken the issue on international platform rather it has silently attempted to defuse the issue by turning its face. The government must move its diplomatic channels. If such attacks continue the dim hope produced by improving ties between Kabul and Islamabad after a national unity government was formed last year will dash to ground. Moreover, the mentality of feud, mistrust, and suspicion pollute a nation’s spirit, trigger brutal life, destroy a nation’s tolerance, and hamper a nation’s journey to development and democracy, therefore, Pakistan must cease its anti-Afghanistan mindset and dump its strategic designs as other nations are leading towards prosperity while this region is locked in rivalries, which has brought unprecedented miseries upon the people of the region.
