Islamabad, July 5 (IANS) The core of the dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is a problem of Islamabad, which was created by Pakistan’s own wars, policies, deals, betrayals and ideological infrastructure, according to a report.
According to Pakistan, the TTP operates from the territory of Afghanistan with the protection or at least toleration of the Afghan Taliban, while Kabul denies this and calls the TTP Pakistan’s internal problem.
“The TTP is indeed a Pakistani problem, created by Pakistan’s own wars, policies, deals, betrayals and ideological infrastructure. But it is also true that the Afghan Taliban’s victory gave the TTP oxygen, space, prestige, and morale. A movement that had survived in fragments suddenly saw its ideological cousins conquer Kabul. The message to every militant along the frontier was simple: patience works, jihad pays, the Americans leave, and states can be defeated,” the Stringer Asia report said.
It said that the dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan is not over TTP and its sanctuaries across the Durand Line but the collapse of Pakistan’s strategic fantasy where Pakistan could outsource instability, manufacture Jihad and install ideological clients in Kabul.
“Pakistan is now asking the Afghan Taliban to do what Pakistan itself never did sincerely: dismantle a jihadist asset because it destabilises a neighbouring state. The irony is almost perfect. For decades, Islamabad asked the world to distinguish between useful and dangerous militants, between those who served Pakistani interests and those who attacked Pakistan. Now it faces a regime in Kabul that makes similar distinctions,” the report noted.
According to the report, Pakistan’s bombing of Afghanistan gives the Taliban a gift: nationalism, which can be a useful resource for the Taliban given their current situation in Kabul.
“The Pakistani state is now trapped in a triangle of its own making. Against Afghanistan, it wants coercive leverage. Against the TTP, it wants military victory. Against its own population, especially Pashtuns, it wants obedience and silence. But these three objectives collide. Bombing Afghanistan inflames Pashtun anger. Cracking down in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa feeds alienation. Deporting Afghans strengthens anti-Pakistan sentiment in Kabul. Closing the border damages local economies and creates more resentment. Blaming everything on Afghanistan hides the domestic roots of the TTP but does nothing to remove them,” the report said.
The report emphasised that Islamabad is fighting the consequences of its own imagination. Pakistani security is being torn open with blowback from the West, which is no longer its depth.
–IANS
ksk/vd