Why is Taliban biting back? 15,000 Taliban fighters march to take on Pakistan.
For decades, Pakistan nurtured the Taliban for strategic reasons. It recognised it as a legitimate government and provided military assistance. Now, the same Taliban is biting the hand that fed it. This is how the Afghan Taliban is compounding Pakistan's woes from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Pakistani airstrikes in Afghan territory have provoked a strong response from Afghanistan's Taliban regime.
Few expected questions :
Why has the Taliban, nurtured by Pakistan for years, now turned into a Franklinstein's monster?
Talibaan's return to power in Afghanistan was hailed as a "blessing" by Pakistan's Prime Minister, Imran Khan. Today it's a chaotic and dangerous scenario for Pakistan -- Hillary Clinton's remarks 'snakes in backyards' have come prophetic !
It was 2011. "It's like that old story. You can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. Eventually, those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard," said Hillary Clinton, then US Secretary of State, under Barack Obama.
Those words now are reverberating as the Taliban, nourished by Pakistan, prepares to bite back the hand that fed them.
Around 15,000 Taliban fighters are marching towards the Pakistani border, according to reports.
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| Hillary Clinton |
"We think that Pakistan for a variety of reasons has the capacity to encourage, to push, to squeeze ... terrorists, including the Haqqanis and the Afghan Taliban, to be willing to engage in the peace process," she had said.
But as usual practitioners of 'state-sponsored terrorism' against India had other ideas.
PAKISTAN JETS HIT AFGHANISTAN, TALIBAN VOWS RETALIATION
Pakistan now faces a dual Taliban challenge. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which operates against Islamabad from areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border, and the Taliban that is in power in Afghanistan.
The current escalation began with Pakistani airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, specifically in the Paktika province. These airstrikes, aimed at dismantling a training facility and targeting Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), resulted in the deaths of 46 people, mostly women and children, according to Taliban officials.
In 2012, I wrote in a blog : -- On its part, when it comes to terror elements, Islamabad has been either at denial mood or doing too slow and too little. Hence, it must be underlined with no ambiguity that the true result of any efforts in track-2 diplomacy and enhancing economic ties can only come when there are ample steps taken by the establishment in Pakistan on terror front.
It goes without saying, any country where non-state actors support terrorism, that country owes a legal and moral responsibility to its neighbours and to the world as a whole. Pakistan ought to appreciate this.
Blogger in China (Pakistan's friend)
A Pakistani official said the strikes targeted "terrorist hideouts inside Afghanistan, using a mix of jets and drones".
The Taliban in spokesman in Kabul said that the defence ministry vowed retaliation for the attack that it called "barbaric" and a "clear aggression". Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry in Kabul also summoned the Pakistani envoy and lodged a strong protest over the strikes.
That is why around 15,000 Taliban fighters are reportedly marching from Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat towards the Mir Ali border adjoining Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The ruling Taliban in Afghanistan and the TTP, which Pakistan calls a threat, are separate but allied groups.
Following the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, Pakistan has witnessed a spike in terror attacks as the new regime has emboldened and strengthened the TTP. The TTP aims to establish an Islamic emirate in Pakistan, just like its brother-outfit did in Kabul. The relationship between the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan's government has been further strained after Islamabad accused the Kabul regime of cross-border terrorism. Islamabad has imposed trade restrictions, expelled some 5,00,000 undocumented Afghan migrants, and put in a stricter visa policy. Military actions on the TTP have continued too.
A report by the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies revealed a 56% rise in fatalities from terror attacks in Pakistan in 2023 compared to 2022, with over 1,500 killed, including 500 security personnel.
** Refer to this .... (2011 story -- when Mother-in-law analogy draws laughter !!
Pakistani leaders, however, must tread cautiously because anti-U.S. sentiments run high. In a rare light-hearted moment, one woman in a town hall meeting compared the United States to a nagging mother-in-law, drawing laughter from Clinton and others.
"And you know, once a mother-in-law, always a mother-in-law, but perhaps mother-in-laws can learn new ways also," she said. Many Pakistanis are angered by U.S. drone strikes against militants in the northwest, and say the country's army is fighting a war based on American interests.
ends
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