Should Pakistan, China continue to feed a partner hosting the enemy?

Once again, Bisham has earned a bad name for Pakistan as six people, including five Chinese nationals, were killed in a suicide explosion.

We remember the 2013 Nanga Parbat massacre where terrorists killed 11 famous high-altitude climbers from Ukraine, China, Slovakia, Lithuania and Nepal, and all roads of investigation led to Chilas and Bisham areas from where terrorists reached the Nanga Parbat base camp. This area spreading from Khwazakhela, Swat, to Bisham passing through Shangla Par Alpuri is infamous for banned outfits directly linked to Afghan jihadists.

The area was previously a hub and under control of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). At the same time, it is the lifeline of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Several Chinese have been attacked and killed in this area in the past, while thousands of TTP terrorists were resettled in this area when the former government, of the PTI, invited Afghan terrorists back to Pakistan under a deal brokered by the Afghan interim government.

Pakistan has long been complaining to Afghan Interim government that several components of the Afghan Taliban are boarding and lodging TTP terrorists in Afghanistan, but the recent horrific video confirmed that not only is TTP getting support from Afghanistan for launching terror attacks against Pakistan, but the Afghan Taliban are also themselves involved in launching attacks in Pakistan.

The global terrorism watchdogs have confirmed that Afghanistan is a launch pad for cross-border terrorism. One cannot miss the recent deadly attack on a concert hall in Moscow whose responsibility has been taken by the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) that has camps in Afghanistan and hires foot soldiers from neighbouring countries. The situation is too complex in Afghanistan as different brand names of terrorist outfits including UN-banned terrorist organisations have footprints in Afghanistan. The responsibility lies on the Afghan interim government to purge terrorist outfits because during the Doha deal, the government had pledged that no terrorist organisation would be allowed to use Afghan soil for terrorism.

It is important to remember that in 2021, nine Chinese nationals working on the Dasu Hydropower Project were killed in the same area around Bisham. Such events confirm that strategic projects of China and Pakistan are being targeted by Afghanistan-backed terrorists.

The Chinese people are giving diplomatic protocols to the Afghan interim government and investing heavily in Afghanistan’s mineral sectors in a bid to support the cash-starved country. Afghanistan, in return, is stabbing China in the back by hosting terrorists who are constantly attacking Pak-China projects that include the entire route of CPEC and Gwadar Port area. According to CEIC Global Economic data, China’s outward investment in Afghanistan was $8.940 million in 2022. This records an increase in the previous number of $2.550 million from 2021. It triggers the obvious question as to why Afghanistan is so willingly compromising its relations.

As Pakistan and China have a shared future, also do they share enemies. Both the countries now have to make firm decisions on fighting back their shared enemies if they are sincere about the success of strategic projects like CPEC. Also, it is high time to locate the money trail of terrorists because it will directly lead to the financer of these terrorist activities that has the sole purpose of destabilising Pakistan’s economy by sabotaging Chinese investment in Pakistan.

Pakistan has the capacity and resources to fight terrorists even inside Afghanistan. In my opinion, there is a high possibility of it by gauging the magnitude of death and destruction Pakistan is bearing. However, China can play a role in stopping an otherwise obvious military solution by cutting all diplomatic and investment ties with Afghanistan till the Afghan interim government stops playing a cynical game of duplicity. This way, an obvious conflict brewing in the region can gradually simmer down.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2024.

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