Striking Back
Pakistan strikes back inside Afghanistan, targeting terrorist hideouts of militants. This was a clear response to not just the militants of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, who have been emboldened in their attacks against Pakistan since Kabul’s takeover by the Taliban, but also a strong messaging to the Taliban for their complicity in letting all this happen. The official statements following the strikes not only confirm that Pakistan has conducted an intelligence-based counter-terrorism operation to target militants but also simultaneously announce that attacks on Pakistan will not be tolerated.
The inaction of the Taliban government in Kabul and their tacit support of militants residing inside Afghanistan is the prime reason why such attacks cannot be eliminated completely. While Pakistan does advocate for mutual cooperation in this regard, the Taliban have repeatedly been found wanting. This is while Pakistan takes the brunt of frequent attacks targeting law enforcement, military, and police personnel. We have lost 2000 precious lives to terrorism emanating from Afghanistan’s soil since the Taliban have become the rulers next door.
After Saturday’s attack in Mir Ali, claimed by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, taking the lives of seven soldiers, Pakistan’s response was apt and needed. Sheltering around 6000 TTP fighters alone, it is due time that the Taliban start seeing it as a problem and not keeping up the loyalties of the past. It is not just Pakistan, even the United Nations has more than once raised alarm on the threat that Afghanistan’s militancy problem poses. One recent report even pointed towards Taliban members joining the TTP. The nexus is indeed very apparent.
It is good to see consistency in Pakistan’s stance on the matter. From day one, precisely the time when the TTP ended the truce in 2022, Pakistan has maintained that the Taliban must take action and not provide shelter to groups who, in turn, carry out attacks inside Pakistan and run back to safe homes in Afghanistan. On the issue of militancy, Pakistan’s diplomacy with Afghanistan is backed by steel, and now it needs to be.