‘Stern message’ to Afghanistan

EDITORIAL: Pakistan’s “stern message” to Afghanistan, that any further cross-border attacks would elicit a “robust response” should have come much sooner, when TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) first resumed its insurgency following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

Instead, the government fumed at Kabul after each attack and, for some reason, always caved into its ridiculous suggestion of negotiating a truce with TTP, as if it was an equal stakeholder in an even conflict.

Now, only after 16 successful suicide attacks on Pakistani soil by the reinvigorated militia has Islamabad put its foot down and, according to reports not yet confirmed by the government, warned Kabul of serious repercussions if it doesn’t clamp down on TTP immediately.

But it’s got serious only after diluting its own outreach and indulging in senseless talks with a bunch of terrorists that dream of enforcing rigid, regressive jungle law over the whole country; flying entire planeloads of clerics to negotiate a ceasefire, as if from a position of weakness. That is why most onlookers do not expect the Taliban to take this threat too seriously.

There’s already chatter – again, not confirmed – that the new regime in Kabul thinks it owes some sort of debt to TTP, for providing support in the last days of the American occupation.

Regardless, the Taliban promised to sort TTP out in crucial negotiations in Doha ahead of the US withdrawal, which was engineered and facilitated principally by Islamabad.

So, whatever TTP means for the Taliban, Kabul has been guilty of breaking its promise to Pakistan ever since the Taliban reclaimed it.

It’s also not clear what sort of action, if any, Pakistan has warned about. There were reports of limited strikes in the border area in April last year (2022), but there wasn’t a word about it, confirmation or denial, by either government.

Yet even if they did take place, they clearly didn’t do the job. TTP kept attacking and the Taliban kept shielding them. Logic dictates, therefore, that any action now, if needed, will have to be stronger and more robust.

It will also have to be decisive because otherwise it will force Kabul to throw all its weight behind TTP and further complicate the insurgency in Pakistan.

The Taliban forget, or have no appreciation for the fact, that Pakistan is their only window to the outside world; also their only pillar of support in hard times. It was Pakistan that shuttled emergency aid to Afghanistan after the devastating earthquake in October, and it is Pakistan that pleads its case before the international community. And, lest they forget, it was Pakistan that got everybody on board to negotiate the American exit after more than two decades of war-on-terror.

The Taliban must, at least, explain why they first agreed to act against TTP and then went back on their word. If they were being duplicitous to get what they wanted and quickly forget the rest, then they risk breaking the enduring bond with Pakistan, which will mean complete isolation for them.

One serious look at their state of affairs will show them that they do not have what it takes to govern a country with so much poverty and suffering without any exogenous help. Therefore, in the interest of everybody in Pakistan and Afghanistan the Taliban regime must extend all possible help to Islamabad in removing the stain of TTP from existence once and for all.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023