Opinion | Pak-Afghan Bittering Relation: Pakistan’s Recklessness!

A famous proverb says that he who digs well for others often falls into it. Likewise, another proverb says that as you sow, so shall you reap. Both the proverbs fit Pakistan and TTP. TTP is that well that Pakistan dug for others, and the seed—Pakistan had sown decades before— has grown up as a strong tree, bearing poisonous fruits for Pakistan as well.
Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan is Pakistan’s creation, created with the ill-political objective to destabilise the peace and progress of its neighbours so that it could ‘stabilise’ itself. In the past, when they were dancing on the fingers of Pakistan’s establishment, Pakistan would hail them as Mujahideen, but now, as they turned their gun barrels towards their creator, they are tagged as terrorists. Pakistan created this python to destroy others, but it is devastating Pakistan now like anything. However, Pakistan’s neighbour, Afghanistan, calls TTP as militants, not terrorists.
While calling TTP a terrorist group, destabilising peace in Pakistan after its military assault killing Pakistan’s seven soldiers last Saturday, Pakistan itself unconsciously admitted that it is a terrorist state. Because the entire world knows what and who TTP is! The view Pakistan upholds concerning the upsurging disturbance in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KPK) and Balochistan is that the Afghanistan Taliban is backing TTP. Not only does Pakistan hold the outlook that the Afghan Taliban government patronises and backs TTP, but it also blames them for providing their land to TTP to operate terroristic designs against it. Thus, Pakistan deduced “a moral and legal conclusion” for itself as to be rightful to attack the places in Afghanistan where the TTP’s base camps run.
Here, we quote and quote Pakistan’s federal minister Rana Suna Ullah’s statement, aired in 2023, reflecting the Pakistan government’s mindset visa vee Afghanistan. He said, “If the Afghan Taliban does not stand against TTP and does not take action, under ‘international principles’, Pakistan is entitled to attack the areas or places being used by banned TTP in Afghanistan. While responding to the statement, the Taliban’s defence ministry said, “We better know how to defend our land”!
So nearly one year after Rana’s statement, Pakistan set afloat Air Strikes in Afghanistan’s north Waziristan, and the tension is escalating between the two neighbouring countries. In the air strike in Khost and Paktika, Pakistan killed five women and three children. The relationship, which has been undergoing a bad phase since the fall of the Afghan civil government to the Afghan Taliban, has turned further bitterer. Pakistan is blaming the incumbent Afghan Taliban for patronising TTP and giving them their land to operate terrorism against their country. Here we quote-n-quote BBC saying that “ Pakistan says it has been dealing with a rising number of militant attacks, and on Monday accused “certain elements among those in power” of “actively patronising” militant group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and of “using them as a proxy against Pakistan”. But in response to Pakistan’s official statement, Afghanistan’s Taliban governance has officially denied any link to the terrorists and has strongly asserted that Pakistan has been shifting the blame to us when the fact is that it is unworthy of tackling its internal issues. TTP is Pakistan’s internal problem altogether.
While responding to Pakistan’s Air Strikes, Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Taliban Afghan Government, warned Pakistan not to blame Afghanistan for the lack of control and problems in its territory in a statement released on X. Here in the Afghan spokesperson’s statement what is notable is the phrase ‘ problems in its(Pakistan’s) territory. Some speculations are made saying that Pakistan’s establishment masterminded the air strike aiming to meander the public from the ongoing political chaos, worsening the country since the elections were asserted as rigged. Analysts also hypothesise that the killing of seven Pakistani soldiers was ISI’s design to find an excuse to set afloat air strikes to successfully drift its public attention from the deteriorating ongoing upheaval in the state. But it resulted in considerable addition in friction of the relationship, running since the Pakistani government forced hundreds of thousands of Afghans to leave Pakistan, saying they did not have the correct paperwork to stay. Even Human Rights groups criticised the move, saying it was a coercion, an inhuman act.
Recent air strikes and forced repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan—knowing the fact that the Afghan Taliban Government has not gathered itself fully, Pakistan’s move of sending their refugees back, excusing that they didn’t have the proper paperwork, while they had been there for decades, was indeed inhuman and political rude— have compounded relationship’s bitterness.
Given the facts, one simply concludes that intensely increasing friction in the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan is there by dint of Pakistan’s rude political conduct towards its neighbours. It is Pakistan to be blamed and kept responsible for the deterioration of neighbourhood relationships. Pakistan’s irresponsible political attitude has heavily cost it and is costing it heavily.

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