Surging attacks

There have been increased attacks in Afghanistan — a reminder that several parties also need to be dealt with

In an intelligence-based operation in the tribal areas, our soldiers killed four terrorists, including a commander involved in several recent deadly attacks. The operation — which took place near the inter-district boundary of North and South Waziristan — almost coincided with the start of the inter-Afghan peace talks in Qatar, raising suspicion that terrorists may be plotting attacks that could derail the negotiations. Pakistan had already noted the risk of something like this happening. Late last week, ISPR Director General Major General Babar Iftikhar pointed out that there had been a spike in violent incidents on either side of the Afghan border. He linked the increase to “spoilers” that want to derail the peace talks.

This is indeed an essential consideration in why the recent surge in attacks has taken place. The Taliban appeared to stick to their word in terms of the start of peace talks, agreeing to meet as soon as the Afghan government released the final group of Taliban prisoners. But on the way to the final prisoner releases, Afghanistan has seen a string of terror attacks, including one on First Vice President Amrullah Saleh last week. The Taliban denied involvement in this and other attacks on civilians. There have also been increased attacks in Taliban-controlled territories — a reminder that several other dangerous parties also need to be dealt with.

This is also why the first step for the government and the Taliban should be to clearly agree on a strategy to combat outright terrorist groups in the country, such as Daesh, even before any formal peace deal is agreed upon. The problem is that the Afghan government still has hawks who oppose the talks. Even among the hawks, there are storing divisions. Some hawks in Kabul sincerely believe that the Taliban are not interested in democracy and would trample many of the rights that the people have been granted over the past 20 years. We can respect their arguments. Unfortunately, most hawks only fear losing their own illegitimate power and influence to the Taliban, who remain electable in some areas. These are the really dangerous hawks. They are not driven by a belief system or a sense of morality, just greed.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2020.

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