Pakistan unnerved at time-tested India-Afghanistan bond

“Even by Pak standards, they have stooped low”, says MEA on abduction row

India on Thursday lashed out at Pakistan over the kidnapping of daughter of Afghanistan’s envoy to Islamabad and said in tongue-in-cheek fashion, “Even by their standards, Pakistan’s denial of the victim’s account is stooping to a new low”.

MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi said a virtual media briefing that this is of course a “shocking incident”.

Time cartoon: 2008 

"This involves two other countries viz. Afghanistan and Pakistan, and usually we would not comment on it. However, since the Interior Minister of Pakistan has dragged India into it, I would only like to say that even by their standards, Pakistan’s denial of the victim’s account is stooping to a new low,” he said.
On ‘security of Indian High Commission personnel’ in Pakistan, he quipped: “I would not like to get into specific securing measures”.

On India-Afghanistan bilateral relations, he said the ties are “guided by the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed between the two sides in October 2011”.

“As a contiguous neighbour, India supports the Government and the people of Afghanistan in realizing their aspirations for a peaceful, democratic and prosperous future where the interest of all sections of Afghan society including women and minorities are protected,” he said.

Bagchi also said at the Afghanistan Conference 2020 held in Geneva, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar had emphasized India’s “long term commitment” to the development of Afghanistan.

In recent past, the bonhomie between India and Afghanistan has left Pakistan anguished and often forced it to pass unpalatable remarks.

Pakistan’s interior minister Rashid Ahmed had called the abduction of Afghan ambassador Najibullah Alikhil’s daughter l- an Indian conspiracy.

The 26-year-old daughter of Afghan ambassador Najibullah Alikhil, was abducted, held for almost five hour and assaulted by unidentified men in Islamabad on July 16. Two days later, the Afghan government recalled its envoy and senior diplomats from Islamabad.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again expresses deep concern over the continuation of unprofessional remarks by Pakistan’s Interior Minister regarding the abduction of the daughter of our Ambassador in Islamabad,” the Afghan foreign ministry has said in a statement.

Irrespective of whoever is in power, Afghanistan sees India as an important regional player under  ‘decisive leadership’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Foreign policy for Pakistan has been more than the conventional first line of defence.
 
Authorities in Islamabad and mainly the military generals have been preoccupied for the more significant part of the country’s existence in an unequal contest against India.
 
That is why even for drawing its Taliban policy, Pak army generals had presumed that if they could gain control of Afghanistan, they would have the extra strategic depth to challenge India.
 
Such ‘perceived ideas’ have not changed even in the changed circumstances. Post 9/11 and even now, the ‘greater’ concern in army barracks in Rawalpindi is how Pakistan should handle India, given its growing and time-tested bond with Afghanistan.
 
Hence, they would bank even on the Taliban, whose enhanced influence could have a more significant impact in reshaping the entire regional dynamics.
 
Unlike in the past, experts in the West agree today readily that–Pakistan is not a country with an army–instead, it is an ‘army’ with a country ‘attached’.
 
For a long time, Pakistan tried to push a line revolving around the theory that for them, ‘the past is another country’.

 

This means they can easily ‘shift’ their standpoint regularly, thinking that what has been done or undone has been ‘forgotten’ by others.

 

In the case of its relationship with two of its neighbours India and Afghanistan, it is the authorities in Pakistan who have been at fault. And stakeholders in Delhi and Kabul have good reasons not to brush those under the carpet.

 

Irrespective of whoever is in power, Afghanistan sees India as an important regional player under the ‘decisive leadership’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 

India has maintained a long-standing affinity with the Islamic world and is no longer a ‘mute spectator’ in the region.

 

Kabul appreciates India as the only country in which both the Muslims and ‘non-believers’, Hindus and other religious groups, are at peace compared to other countries.

 

Afghanistan appreciates India has enhanced its support in recent years in restructuring government machinery, providing medical aid, and constructing hospitals and other capacity building.

 

This works to India’s advantage and has left Pakistan unnerved.

 

Pakistan’s predicament is beyond explanation.

 

If analysed objectively, it is no longer a friend of Afghanistan. It is notwithstanding the Islam-brotherhood polity, and there is little faith between Islamabad and Washington.

 

The erstwhile Barack Obama administration displayed that when Osama Bin Laden was humbled and before that, the White House ensured Pakistan is kept out of it. The reason being, Obama knew it well that Pakistan’s army and ISI operatives maintained links to Taliban and even Al-Qaeda.
 
Joe Biden himself has no reason to think differently. First, he has served as Vice President during Obama days. To top it recently, Pakistan’s Supreme Court (which works in tandem with power that is) ordered the release of Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, who was convicted in 2002 for kidnapping and killing of journalist Daniel Pearl.
 
The Pakistan-British man was on death row for 18 years—no doubt this must have outraged the US.

(Organiser link)

https://www.organiser.org//Encyc/2021/7/21/Pakistan-unnerved-at-time-tested-India-Afghanistan-bond.html