Taliban Versus Pakistan: New South-Asian Confrontation Begins

Taliban Versus Pakistan: After the establishment of the Taliban government in Kabul last year, Pakistan began to comprehend that it has become more powerful in South-Asian geo-politics. But the misunderstanding ceases to exist now.

Taliban Versus Pakistan: For the last two-and-a-half decades, it was Pakistan that had given shelter to the Taliban and prior to it the Afghan Mujahideen also. But for the shock of Pakistan, things have rapidly changed beyond their expectations.

Taliban Versus Pakistan: Taliban first taught a lesson to its previous ally America and now it is confronting Pakistan also. There are almost daily reports of gunfights between the Taliban and Pakistani border guards now.

Ever since Sir Mortimore Durand’s 1893 drawing of the Durand Line between Afghanistan and British India, but then successive Afghan governments refused to accept it. Now when the Pakistan government is trying to erect pillars on this 2700 km long Durand line, the Taliban government opposes it.

Thousands of Afghan and Pakistani citizens move between each other’s countries without passports and visas on a daily basis. The tension between the two countries has increased so much that now Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had to go to Kabul with an agenda to talk over it. There was also a failed attempt to assassinate a senior diplomat of the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul.

Prior to this, the assassination of Al-Qaeda leader Al-Zawahiri in Kabul by the US, was also said to be in connivance with Pakistan. The operation is apparently not being run by the Taliban of Kabul. It is being run by the people of Tehreek-Taliban-e-Pakistan. They originally are Pakistanis but nowadays they have established their base in Kabul.

These outfits have been demanding from the Imran and Shahbaz Sharif governments that the governance of Pakistan should be based on Islamic principles. Now Kabul’s Taliban seems to play the role of mediator between Islamabad and Tehreek overtly but basically they entirely are supporting the ‘Tehreek’.

They have also been successful for a ceasefire of 5-6 months between the two sides, but not only the Taliban, but also the average Pathans believe that the Punjabi rulers of Pakistan want to keep them as their slaves. They think, Pakistan gave shelter to lakhs of Afghans during Russian occupation but they still want to capture Peshawar. On the other hand, the Afghans say that these Punjabi people have been occupying our land for almost one hundred and fifty years and they are involved in theft and pilferage with us.

The Government of Pakistan is now realizing that it has dug a deep ditch for itself by promoting Afghan terrorism. Now those same Afghans have become the huge headache for Pakistan. This is called the boomrang in political sphere which is rarely seen.