Afghan brinkmanship

Border tensions rise as Pakistan hits Taliban targets after ceasefire breach

The Afghan Taliban are once again in breach of trust as they carried out unprovoked firing along the border with Pakistan. This is a negation of the Urumqi accord brokered under Chinese mediation that led to the cessation of hostilities between the two countries. Pakistan's security forces had no choice but to retaliate under Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, destroying several military check-posts and hideouts of terrorists inside Afghanistan.

The precision-guided air strikes across Chaman and in Laghman province reportedly dismantled an arms depot, the ABF battalion headquarters and the Nangarhar brigade. A Taliban post near the Mohmand sector was also rooted out in what appeared to be a carefully-guarded and well-calculated response from Pakistani forces against Afghan military targets in line with international law.

This disruption speaks of Kabul's agenda to keep the region on tenterhooks. The reclusive regime is playing into the hands of a global terror nexus, aptly supported by Indian intelligence agencies. This claim stands substantiated as al-Qaeda has recently admitted its collusion with the Afghan Taliban.

This nefarious collaboration has repeatedly been documented by the UN, too. It goes without saying that this phenomenon of exporting terrorism is undermining regional stability, derailing geo-economics and devastating the social fabric of Pakistan, which is primarily on the receiving end.

Pakistan is well within its rights to go ahead with hot-pursuit operations against the Afghan authorities. Such operations are solely meant to dismantle the terror infrastructure and deter Taliban rulers from aligning themselves with rogue elements. At a time when the entire region is in a state of flux amid the US-Israeli aggression against Iran, this brinkmanship from the Afghans is unwarranted.

The fact that Kabul is unmindful of problems being faced by its own people in the form of hunger, employment and lack of security, is nothing but callousness. Taliban must rescind this policy of otherness and hate.