Daily Times

Pakistan may not be crying ‘wolf’, but this is how it appears to war analysts and critics. To be embroiled in a conflict in a neighbouring country for which it does not have a justifiable provocation or justification, Pakistan over decades has managed to entrench itself in a full-blown war, with no resolution in sight, amidst human and financial losses as a normal occurrence. The ludicrous idea of ‘strategic depth’, which has culminated in a series of disastrous misadventures in war-torn Afghanistan, is still in process. It is time to rethink it all.

The latest official condemnation of approximately 60 Afghan soldiers’ alleged intrusion into Pakistani territory has unleashed a new round of accusations and counter-accusations between the two neighbours. The death of two Pakistani tribesmen is an added tragedy in an already bloodstained scenario. Cross-border attacks, which are on the rise of late, will make an already bad situation stink even worse. The constant blame game between Pakistan and Afghanistan over ‘alleged’ harbouring of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban on both sides of the 2,400 kilometres porous border has deteriorated the already tepid relationship between the two countries. The US and NATO forces are not too happy either. As the preparations of the US/NATO to pull out by 2014 start to roll, the closed NATO supply routes through Pakistan and the latter’s support to the Afghan Taliban in its tribal areas is contributing to the growing hostility toward Pakistan. Afghanistan has denied its forces conducted any operation on the border. There have been frequent attacks by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in recent days, and the possibility that this attack too was by them, has not prevented raised tensions along the border. As the US/NATO have been putting pressure on Pakistan since long to root out the Afghan Taliban’s safe havens on Pakistani soil, the accusation of Pakistan’s culpability does not seem off the mark. In the area in question, the TTP has found safe havens in the eastern borders of Afghanistan with the Haqqani network, which controls these provinces. The mayhem wreaked by the TTP has its stains all over Pakistan, causing innumerable deaths. Pakistan’s policy of using the Afghan Taliban as proxies has blown up in its face because of the nexus between the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. Before it catapults into more bloodshed, it is time to rethink Pakistan’s enfeebled, faulty, misplaced proxy war strategy in Afghanistan. *