The Afghan Taliban have touched a raw nerve of Pakistan by reminding it of what happened in Dacca (previously, capital of East Pakistan and now spelt Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh) in December 1971. The message was accompanied by a picture of Pakistan’s Lt. Gen. A.A.K. Niazi signing the instrument of surrender in the presence of Lt. Gen. J.S. Arora of the Indian Army.
This is Afghan Taliban’s response to Pakistan’s warning that it would not tolerate terrorists sheltered in its neighborhood and that the policy of ‘zero tolerance’ of terrorism entitled it to attack cross border hideouts of terrorists. The irony is difficult to miss.
Pakistan is forced to get tough with the Afghan Taliban regime though it has been striving to get it international recognition ever since the US -led NATO forces had bowed out of the blood-soaked country in humiliation two years ago. The daily spat between Kabul and Islamabad is primarily on account of Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which Pakistan classifies as ‘bad Taliban’.
TTP may not be a direct offshoot of the Afghan Taliban but both are bound by mediaeval mindset that wants a Sharia rule. Like the Afghan Taliban, the TTP rejects the Durand Line, the British time boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan. So much so banish the thought that the ‘bad’ Taliban of Pakistan would be alienated from the ‘Good’ Taliban of Afghanistan. Pakistan went after TTP believing that the Afghan Taliban would stay silent. It ignored the reality check that both the Taliban are Pashtun based – a community that is divided by the Durand Line.
Following military operations against TTP, there has been an Increase in the number of Pakistani casualties—both civilians and military. The army is angry and worried. It has discovered that all its fancy-named ops against the TTP have failed to tame it. Last summer, a ceasefire agreement was signed between the TTP and Pakistan. It lasted less than six months as both sides resumed attacks on each other. The ceasefire was brokered by the Afghan Taliban following a request from the Pakistan establishment. The Pakistan army believes the TTP used the ceasefire lull to regroup and strengthen its fighting potential in the tribal areas of the country.
A more worrisome fact is that some of the insurgent groups in Baluchistan have made common cause with the TTP which has brought them closer to the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan’s shrill propaganda alleging that India was backing the nationalist movement in Baluchistan as well as the TTP has failed to catch any attention in the world.
No surprise, both the Shehbaz government and the military Shura led by Army chief Syed Asim Munir that runs the foreign and security policies are at their wits end. Because the policy, being pursued for several decades, of hunting the Baloch nationalists by bombing their hideouts, killing and kidnapping their activists has boomeranged.
The insurgency in Baluchistan has not only mounted but it also targets the Chinese working on CPEC projects particularly in Gwadar on the Arabian coast. With TTP behind it, the insurgency in Baluchistan has become deadlier. Pakistan had apparently assumed that the danger from Afghan Taliban and the TTP would vanish after the inclusion of its blue-eyed good terrorist, Sirajuddin Haqqani as interior minister in Afghanistan. In fact, the Haqqani network has become an object of suspicion within Afghanistan and the TTP. This is clearly a setback for Pakistan’s dream of lording over Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban believes that the American drone attack that killed al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri at his safe Kabul hideout was mounted from Pakistan. Kabul also believes that Pak army chief of the day Gen Bajwa had facilitated the use of Pak air space for the drone attack to return to the good books of the Americans.
Clearly Pakistan backyard has become the land where anti-snake serum is not going to work giving a fresh currency to Hillary Clinton’s 2011 prophecy that that poisonous snakes kept by Pakistan in its ‘backyard’ can come crawling out of their pits to attack the keepers who thought they would bite only the enemy (read India).
Hillary sounded the warning as US Secretary of State at a presser in Islamabad with the then foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar standing by her side. Today Hina stands demoted as a junior minister at the foreign office.